Grown ups tell lies

We walked into a park with no birds,
just need to put flowers on pa's grave
she had said.

He is safe in a box, she had said
and put the flowers on the grassy hill
telling him to sleep well.

I knelt down to listen
I wanted to read the story words
cut in the big slab

but she grabbed my collar to run
for the bus.

I had a long think, I thought about
the day she told me to look at the sky.

She told me pa was flying
and that I could count the stars now
not his tablets.

So I know he isn't trapped under the dirt
he is floating in his armchair, walking on
the moon on a good-legs day.

I remembered that night I had fetched
his slippers and put them on the back step.