FATHER
Father I remember your sweat seasoning
the dry earth
fertilising the iron decks
you scraped with devotion
in the dead-
ly sun
Victor Questel (1949–1982) was a poet, critic and the author of Score (1972), Near Mourning Ground (1979), Hard Stares (1982) and Collected Poems (2016). His writing also appeared in Tapia, The New Voices, and Kairi, which he co-edited with Christopher Laird.