I S S U E 6

Robert Hamberger

Text

Love you Dad. Sorry 
about your car troubles
and that we missed
seeing you. Hope
going back to work
hasn’t been too much
of a drag.
The nights he wouldn’t
sleep, those first three 
years, I felt so spun to
the edge of myself 
sometimes my temper 
broke. After I smacked
I’d pat his back through 
cot-bars, read my bleary
book, and inch, cross-
legged, across the carpet
—slowly, slowly—not
to wake him.
Whenever my temper
broke, I woke ashamed,
and when I opened his 
curtains next morning 
he’d say We love each
other, don’t we? I’m
still lit up by his words
and catch twelve seconds
from my job to press my
own words here, between
400 emails, add a kiss to 
bless the man who strokes
my temple with his thumb. 

Robert Hamberger lives in Brighton and his latest collection is Blue Wallpaper (Waterloo Press, 2019).

‘Text’ appears in the Spring/Summer 2021 issue of Poetry Birmingham; you can buy the issue here.