Luciana Francis
estranged
mother is no longer here
in the empty room
where my father sat
alone
with me.
there were times when
he would sing,
and I recall the bird in its cage,
the loud melody
until the last day.
when it died,
my father
held it up by its wings,
silent in the shade.
Luciana Francis (née Saldanha), originally from São Paulo, Brazil, moved to the UK in 1998. Her debut poetry pamphlet ' Travel Writing' (Against the Grain Poetry Press) depicts time as distance, and poet as time-traveller. Her poems appear in Poetry London, Magma, Butcher's Dog, The London Magazine (online), and Literary Mama, among others.