Author photo by artist, Walter Bakowski

Monday, January 17, 2011

Missing in action


Although she’s mopping the kitchen floor,
Ella is crying.

Words come out of her husband’s mouth.
Some variation of “Stop now, Ella.”
Ed’s a good man,
keeps his lawn trimmed,
stays away from liquor and the racetrack.

Neighbours bring meals.
Roast chicken, gumbo, lasagna.
Ella remembers her father saying,
“Food is love, the only way some folks can speak.”

Roland’s room.
Ella stands at its threshold,
looks again at the wall poster of Sly Stone
wearing a rainbow-coloured cap,
on stage at Woodstock,
once a hit-maker,
once a hero.

Evenings, after dinner,
sometimes Ed moves towards the record player,
then shakes his head,
knows Ella isn’t ready,
tells himself
that the quiet,
after an eight hour shift at the brewery,
is good.

Ella removes the candlestick holder
from the dining-room table,
to work further on her quilt,
the story of her sharecropper parents
told in panels,
told in thread and stitches,
their days of work and prayer
sewn into a field of cloth.

In the quilt
trees appear.
Trees in which
a girl could hide,
pretend she was a bird,
flying away from her home
of plank and tin,
flying away from the South,
following the moon-lit railway tracks
all the way to Chicago.

From his armchair,
Ed looks up from the book he’s reading.
He cannot see words
only Roland,
lying in mud,
flies crawling his face.

Ed closes his eyes
until the image leaves him.

There is Ella,
still at the dining-room table,
working on her quilt.

Ed watches the threaded needle
dive and resurface,
guided by his wife’s steady hand.

4 comments:

  1. An evocative and thoughtful piece this. I like it especially the image of the needle diving and resurfacing at the end.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 'evocative and thoughtful' as Jim said.

    the quilt made me think of ancient mortcloths, which poor people could hire from their parish to cover their dead going to burial.
    peace and love to you PB

    ReplyDelete
  3. one of my London blogger pals is a Crashpadder and has had good experiences - this could be good for you to check out

    Crashpadder.com is a global homestay community. Crashpadder gives hosts the chance to earn money from their spare room, and guests a place to stay.
    www.crashpadder.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Jim and Marshall, Thanks for your thumbs ups re the "Missing In Action" poem.
    I find it hard to detach myself from my poems, to decide whether they are worthy or are best deleted. That's why I post a poem or read it out at readings. To see whether the poem has an audience, has readers.
    Every good wish,
    Peter

    ReplyDelete