urquhart veranda
Nineteen
hair piled high
afternoons on
the wooden verandah
of Kick’s Hotel
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡where her mother
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡dressed in black
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡moves like a cloud
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡behind the soft screen door
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡fabricating
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡tiny wreaths
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡from light brown hair
grandmother is passing the time
around like cupcakes at nineteen
rhythms of porch swings
father and brother recently dead
locks of their hair
braided in
mourner’s jewellry
summer afternoon
several young men are
tipping their hats to grandmother
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡sooner or later
grandfather will pass
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡he is the icing
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡he is the season
he will die too
of course
men always do
Source: Urquhart, Jane. False Shuffles. Victoria: Press Porcépic, 1982. Section entitled The Undertaker’s Bride.
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