The rower
Did grandfather Stead
(she wants to know)
row for Oxford
or Cambridge – or
(as sometimes asserted)
for one then
the other? These
claims for him I long
ago dismissed
but she’s heard there’s
a pewter mug inscribed
with his name
that proves it was
Oxford. I remember
a tall man
“well-spoken”, who
came only at Christmas
and gave me
always a half
crown. Catholic, a
sinner perhaps –
everything he’d
ever owned lost or
spent – he was found
dead in his bed in
a rooming house in
Mount Eden
arms crossed
over his chest in
an act of contrition.
I tell her I think
he’s rowing still
on the black river.
C K Stead