You picked me up that morning,
Forty years ago, to take me to Niagara Falls
In your second-hand red Fiat.
I remember it was stick-shift.
On the QEW from our town
To the Falls, an excitement
I had never nor ever felt again.
By chance we dressed alike:
White shirts and jeans.
My curls. Your curls.
My ecru espadrilles
Your camel desert boots.
We were the colours of lake
And sky. Sand and stones.
Passersby smiled at us
Recognizing something
Of themselves perhaps -as in a garden.
Blooms returning year after year
Their faces, always the same.
I will remember us like that too, forever.
Our younger selves so new, blooming.
Excitedly speeding towards the Falls
Unaware of why or the implications
Of it all, our joy shimmering, fleeting.
Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews is a poet and the host & coordinator of the Oakville Literary Cafe Series. Her new collection, Sunrise Over Lake Ontario, was published in 2019. Her previous poetry publications include: Sea Glass, The Whispers of Stones, The Red Accordion, Letters from the Singularity and A Jar of Fireflies. Josie’s poetry has been shortlisted for the Malahat Review’s Open Season Award, Descant’s Winston Collins Prize and The Canada Literary Review ’s Summer Poetry Competition, The Eden Mills Festival Literary Contest and the Henry Drummond Poetry Prize. Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews’ poetry has won first place in Arborealis Anthology Contest and in Big Pond Rumours Literary E-Zine.