Eleven
Twenty Two
Sixty Three

I think I recall
the BBC globe
in black and white,
a spinning duality.

The program inter-
ruption in Queen’s English
like a lightning strike;
Mother’s tears,
Dad’s ambivalence —
“Your blubbering
as if you knew him!”

What youngster could
comprehend?
Yet somehow I knew
a bright star had fallen
that November day

Copyright Francis Barker 2020

Poetics – Stoddard, Longfellow and Bryant say hello! (What does November mean to you?)