Sam’s folks were always going at each
other, but her father was like an uncle
to me; good fun, a kind of hero.
One hot summer we drove to a fair
and he won the big plush toys
and gave them to us like trophies.
Simon and Garfunkel sang Bridge
Over Troubled Waters
on the radio, and I wound down
the window while they argued.
Between the static I heard a sound,
low and soft. We stopped
and I stepped on wet leaves
and caught him up, just as he flung
the rock-filled sack in the river,
where the current was strongest.
I can still see the arc it made
in the air, the thud,
the flow of the river snatching it.
Going home he smoked a Marlboro
and bought more ice-cream for us.
Marguerite Doyle's publication credits include The Storms, The Honest Ulsterman, Skylight 47, The Wexford Bohemian and The Waxed Lemon. In 2024 she was the winner of the Mill Cove Gallery's Poets Meet Painters Competition. Marguerite lives in Dublin.