I was born when I wasn’t looking.
I assume my mother
was having me at the time,
but I cannot tell you for sure.
A year later, Hitler
put a gun in his mouth
and didn’t hear it go off.
I came into the world
at exactly the moment
an old salt was rowing a boat
to give me your answer do.
Had I drowned on that day
that is all of me I’d’ve saved
and taken to Heaven.
Biography: Richard Livermore was born in Sussex in 1944. He went to various boarding-schools and left at 15. He joined the Army, but was discharged 6 months later. He went from job to job and in 1974 to Newbattle Abbey College in Scotland. He has lived in Scotland ever since, except for 5 years in Spain. He has had numerous poems published in magazine and webzines in Britain and the USA, plus books by Lothlorien, Diehard and Chanticleer Press. He is presently retired.
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