EULOGY TO YESTERDAY

  
                       
I shut out the present 
remembering my ninth birthday 

707 St. Clare; white frame house
red windowbox geraniums 
flower pots on cement steps 

"Keep out of the kitchen 
while I'm baking your cake" 

hundreds of things for me to do while my 
hair dried:

ninety steps to the spruce tree 
swing; the world moved up and 
down as ropes untwisted

plucking pods from caragana 
hedges I constructed 
sepulchral whistles 

Mom's garden 
lush with mauve sweet rockets, 
blue delphiniums 

waxy margarite 
petals reveal my fortunes:
he loves me, he loves me not 

reality intrudes 
Town Council edict: 
"Inspect your property" 

I don't want to see 
this lot vacant 
my home stood here

garden overgown
weeds, 
grass, ankle-high 

no hazel-eyed mother 
sitting on her bench 

I turn away to weep

copyright 1999 by G. Walker-Hobbs. This poem may be not reproduced without written permission from the author.

This poem has also been published in Pulse Magazine.

This picture was painted by the late Maureen Henry for my 21st birthday. Thanks to my friend Tina for her help with the graphics.

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