Tasting the Earth

Excerpt

Colour In the Willows

Darling … the colour has come back, in the willows.
Remember how it was, last year? Incredibly orange …
Little orange willow switches
Hardly bending;
Remember the white shore road
And the blue water in the Bay
Still fretted with clotted snow
At the sand edge?
The sky was a light, high blue
And all the clouds were little, and frisky.
And we kept making wagers about the willows
At every curve in the road.
Darling … the colour has come back in the willows;
But I have no one … to bet with!

"They Also Serve …"

Nightly, still, I dress for you,
In frocks of fabric and of hue
You would have liked.
Silly, I know, when you are gone,
To care if shoes are black or fawn;
To match my lip rouge with a ring;
To pin gardenias at my breast;
To brush my hair till it is sleek
As carded silk … and in my eyes
To wear a look of glad surprise!
Nightly, still, I dress for you -
Because I know you'd want me to!

Litany For the Lonely

You're warmth and laughter …
You're the "good time"!
You're security …
And sleeping with arms 'round
And no night …
And the dark shut out!
You're pain
Drowned in joy,
And laughter from the heart …
You're loving kindness …
The look of dear acquaintance
And a hand to hold,
Always!

This Was My Brother
(For Lt.-Col. Howard McTavish, killed in action at Dieppe)

This was my brother
At Dieppe,
Quietly a hero
Who gave his life
Like a gift,
Withholding nothing.

His youth … his love …
His enjoyment of being alive …
His future, like a book
With half the pages still uncut -

This was my brother
At Dieppe -
The one who built me a doll house
When I was seven,
Complete to the last small picture frame,
Nothing forgotten.

He was awfully good at fixing things,
At stepping into the breach when he was needed.

That's what he did at Dieppe;
He was needed.
And even Death must have been a little shamed
At his eagerness!

"NostAglia"

What's "nostAglia", Mums?
"NostAglia … ?" Oh, you mean
"Nostalgia", Son, let me see …
How can I explain it to you, this "nostAglia",
(As good a word for it as any!)
Well … Darling …
"NostAglia", is that funny pit-of-the-tummy feeling
You get
Going down in elevators
Only you're not in an elevator -
It just comes.
Everything sort of goes away from you,
And you feel a little scared
And a lot lonely …
It's like this
Remember Tippy … the little brown dog …
And how we loved him;
And how he ran just a little ahead of you,
Just a little too fast
And you, chasing him on your tricycle …
And the curb came,
And you stopped,
And Tip, didn't
And he just lay there,
And the look was gone out of his eyes
And we tucked him away in a brown bean carton
Under the apple tree
And the house was awfully quiet without him,
That was "nostalgia".

***

And remember when we did the Plays,
And you were Wakefield in the Jalna one,
And we used to prop up your lines over the basin in the bathroom,
And you learned them while you brushed your teeth;
And you followed me round the kitchen
While I made peanut butter cookies
And took the part of Renny
At the same time …
And it was pretty exciting
And mixed up, and very wonderful …
And the smell of make-up, remember that...?