daddy was a bank robber

after waiting hours
came visiting hours
that never seemed plural
then
after fleeting moments of you
return
to a house grown dusty
in a town grown colder
through waiting hours

yet sadder still
after waiting hours
as hours became significant
tumbled through time
when hours forgot
nappies and prams
when hours forgot
short trousers
puberty
adolescence
fights
and inevitably romance

when hours condemned my childhood
through your eyes
through waiting hours
to those seventy-eight photographs
taped to your locker door