I never saw you personally, though
Your mother helped whenever she protested;
I checked on you each time she was arrested;
Her misdemeanours helped me watch you grow.
Bad as it looks, I hope you'll understand.
If I had won our bread some other way,
By slaving in an office every day
Or freedom-fighting in some other land,
My absence would have meant I would be missed.
I do admit I was an absent father.
But surely you don't think that you would rather
Be brought up as a bloody anarchist?
© Philip Challinor
Undercover police had children with activists
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Philip blogs at 'The Curmudgeon' - He insists, "You'll come for the curses. You'll stay for the mudgeonry." Philip is the author of a number of books.
