For My Daughter, by Jo Roach

Jo Roach is the mother of a  40 year old daughter with a learning disability.  Jo runs Pedal Power www.pedalpowercc.org, a cycling club in Finsbury Park for children and adults with learning disabilities and their families.

For My Daughter

And you Suzie, what should I leave you?
Not the pewter statue of the boy
His right hand missing,
Let him stay on the mantelpiece
For the second dealers.
Not photos of my mother who died
Before you were born into that grieving time.
Not money, to be banked for you
By someone else.
Not my poems, you’ll never read them.
But the very fiercest of watchdogs
Who wouldn’t sleep for a hundred years.

Published in Oxford Poets 2007, An Anthology – OUP and Carcanet Press