Best Friend Not For Long

Big loud girl,
you took shy me
under your confident wing,
taught me things
my parents never did.

Walking home from school
you yelled at a group
in different uniform:
'Catholic dogs
sitting on logs'
then suddenly stopped
before the shouting back
and the stone-throwing could begin.

'Oh, it’s my little cousin Bevvie'
and threw your arms around her.
Even then I saw
the irony
and your oblivion.



[Poem #44]

Primary School Headmaster

'Mum!' nudging her,
'It’s Mr. Wilson.'
The vague-eyed man
lifted his hat, but I saw
he no longer knew me:
a soft-faced child
under his silver hair.
And I was grown.

Always silver-haired,
he’d wander into classrooms,
his impromptu English lessons
more enthralling than stories.
He gave me then my grasp
of Latin roots.
Every child in the school
loved him. He knew us all by name.



[Poem #20]

Ice Demon

It’s freezing tonight!
When it’s this cold,
my thoughts turn again
to you, Miss Winter.

Grade One teacher,
Grade A sadist, you liked
bringing the bending cane
down briskly, to sting
our six-year-old palms
for any reason.

You taught us all year,
but in my memory
it was always winter.
Your name filled the world.
Even your face 

and voice chilled me.

I thought I’d never
be warmed.


[Poem #11]

I'll be sharing this (long after it was written) with Friday Writings #116 at Poets and Storytellers United, where we are prompted 'to write about someone who made an impression on you as a child (for good or ill).'

First Boyfriend

We eyed each other off a while
before you made your move.
Or was it I who invited you?
So long ago …

You came to my house.
When I heard the knock I couldn’t
walk straight up the corridor,
stumbled though I wanted to skip.

Our mothers chatted politely.
We ran outside to play.
It ended when you told me
you didn’t believe in fairies.
(We were five.)



[Poem #2]