Halloween Sonnet Contest: Last Requests, Felicity Teague
Felicity Teague features regularly in The HyperTexts , Snakeskin , and elsewhere. Her second collection, Interruptus: A Poetry Year , is forthcoming in 2025. Last Requests He greets me with his usual half-salute as I approach the summit of the hill. It’s winter, but he’s in a linen suit, the type he wore before becoming ill. I call, “Hi Grandad!”, slightly out of breath from climbing and from carrying the things he asked for just an hour or so from death: some ice cream, and his dressing gown with strings to keep him decent. Hospital was grim, but now we needn’t talk about the ward. We sit together, sing his favourite hymn; up here, we must be closer to the Lord or what it is that brings me once again to grant his last requests, so far from pain.