(For Dicky Deegan’s Da)
Steam rises – a kettle whistle crescendos and fades
– the mammy lifts it from the Yorkist range –
the only English thing in the kitchen.
Around a table more aged than them all
Old and young – daughters and sons
Prepare to bear the pall.
At the table Ted once assembled pipes
– most beauteous Heath Robinson contraption
played inventively to teach and learn and show
That Ted – like his music – will never really go.
‘In-your-hand’ cups of tea
Provide distraction therapy
And the whistle’s now the
kitchen’s only song.