Mother, Any Distance

Front 1

Stanza 1

Back 1

Mother, any distance greater than a single span

requires a second pair of hands.

You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors,

the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.

Hint 1

M, A D G T A S S

R A S P O H.

Y C T H M M W, P, D,

T A O T W, T P O T F.

Front 2

Stanza 2

Back 2

You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording

length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving

up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling

years between us. Anchor. Kite.

Hint 2

Y A T Z-E, M W T S O T, R

L, R M, C B T B, T L

Y B U. A. K.

Front 3

Stanza 3

Back 3

I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb

the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something

has to give;

two floors below your fingertips still pinch

the last one-hundredth of an inch ... I reach

towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky

to fall or fly.

Hint 3

I S-W T T E B, C

T L T T L, T B P, W S

H T G;

T F B Y F S P

T L O-H O A I ... I R

T A H T O O A E S

T F O F.