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Sledging For Joanna and Matthew by Terry McDonagh, Irish Poet, Playwright, Writer and Founding contributor of Live Encounters Magazine
Even if we don’t have snow in Hamburg at the moment, Sledging is a poem that brings back happy memories of my son, Matthew, tumbling about in snowdrifts with Joanna, my wife, an anxious onlooker. The poem is included in my recently published collection for young people, Echolocation. LINK
Sledging
For Joanna and Matthew
The wooden sledge stood
in the corner of our shed
like a small person on tiptoes
most of the year – its
metal blades curved like
comet arms in a mythical sky.
When the snow came, we
dragged it along the
white, packed road
by the railway tracks
to the long slope in the park.
I see Matthew hurtling down
on flattened snow –
a picture of perfection
with only a wire fence
between him and a frozen pond.
Joanna covered her eyes while
he tumbled into the white powder
rolling over and over –
a puppy in a Christmas storybook.
© Terry McDonagh