The Old Mans Gait

Neither kind or unkind
Neither absent or present
Just a reflection
It’s just in the way we walk
I walk to my father’s metre
I walk with the old man’s gait
Down past the gasometer
And through the estate
Those miscalculated steps
He’s not so steady on his pins
Those miscalculations
He was never ready with his affection
He walks with my grandfather’s falter
He walks with the old man’s gait
Not that he ever knew him
Just some guy staring at the school fence
Those miscalculated steps
None of us were so good at sums
Those miscalculations
With never the time to make our corrections
And I lifted you up to get a better view
Your hip pressed against my cheek
And your arm fell over the top of my head
Your fingers playing with my ear
And we looked at the same thing
And you were my boy
And then I sat you on the wall
Leaned down on my elbows to be by your side
And you pointed and you told me of everything you could see
Those miscalculated steps
None of us were so good at sums
Those miscalculations
With never the time to make our corrections
Neither kind or unkind
Neither absent or present
Just a reflection
It’s just in the way we walk