I’m remembering my mothers Christmas Card list.
Written in her hand, in writing shaped
By chalk on a blackboard, rounded and clear
For children to read. Names harvested from a past.
Beardsworth Auld, Charles somewhere in the east
Who sent silk scarfs, who I never met, now deceased.
She’d get out the list put away last year
In a manila folder with remainder cards
With Basildon Bond paper and her pen,
And spread them on the dining room table.
Some years, some names crossed out,
Odd names added, the original remained.
Dyllis, Clarice, Hilda, Pat Raine
The curl of smoke from a silk cut cigarette
Head inclined, a young fey look on her face,
Exhaling, as if remembering the time and place
Where their lives combined, Germany, or Hull
In the drawing room of Quebec Road.
Helen and Ian, 4 The Quay, Isle of Sky.
Somewhere in storage container, dormant
These many years, that manila folder lies,
While I make a list, my head inclined
Harvesting from an overlapping past
Vijay, Varsha, Bharat, Dr Jain
Pat Raine, 4 The Paddock, Cottingham
Christmas Card List
December 2011
Kalikellett 