Pride Day, 2017

Today I’m remembering a long-ago rush-hour subway ride. Settled into our confined spaces, pretending our butts and bits aren’t pressed up against strangers, politely not acknowledging each other’s presence. I gather little bits of awareness: the needles of a woman tatting lace, the huge size of a labourer’s lunch cooler, the Japanese lettering of a rider’s book.

Of a sudden, a switch turns on and I realize the weary middle-aged woman standing in the doorway “is a man.” Continue reading “Pride Day, 2017”

Mothering

My Mother’s Day expectations have changed drastically over the years. In the early years, apart from handmade heart-melts from the boys, the pressure was all on my husband.

After we separated, the boys had to be trained to step up. Some years I was pleasantly surprised  by breakfast in bed; other years I had to remind them, demanding ANY small token, like a cup of tea or doing dishes without dramatics. Continue reading “Mothering”

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving weekend. After a day of floating on gratitude for what I have, I’ve become immensely grateful for what I didn’t lose.

The week before Thanksgiving, the boys were all in the zone. My eldest son had a new job supervising others, and he was rising to the occasion. My middle son entered a training program; he was so proud, and leaving early every morning telling me he’s going to work. And my youngest got a glowing update from his school; so three check marks on my gratitude list.

Continue reading “Thanksgiving weekend”

I, Wood

Brisk march down the subway platform
One pulled-back panel of green tile revealing century-old rusty bits,
And one old wooden shim, woodgrain visible under underground grime

Of a sudden, in that glimpse, I’m thrown into its

Tiny beginnings,
Quiet whispers of time,
Years of baked pine-needle-and-soil smell
slowly passing like one perfect summer afternoon;
The boots
The sawmill scream
The sawdust air
The truck
The worker
The saw
The mallet
The muffled roar of time

The glance of a woman who thinks she knows where she’s going.

Mom turns 90

Kathleen surrounded by her grandchildren at her ninetieth birthday

Kathleen was born in 1926. She was the youngest of nine, and had nine children herself. In 2016, at her 90th celebration, I captured a few quotes from those toasting her:

Granddaughter
What a ringleader and matriarch throughout the years! I’m proud to be following in your footsteps, becoming a nurse.

Son-in-law
The most welcoming of matriarchs, through good times and bad.

Niece
Across the entire Cahill clan- it’s profound, the influence you’ve had in all of our lives.

Continue reading “Mom turns 90”

Passenging on a country drive

Why
Does the eye
Seek out beyond the blue of the sky
a piddly bit of water blue?

Hey, I just saw the lake!

There’s no shortage of blue, trust me.
So why one blue and not the other?
Sky and water, mother and daughter,
use sunlight to display their bluey hues.

Sky absorbs and becomes the light.
Water reflects – it’s having none of it;
sunglasses in place
upon a stony face –
“You think you know me? You don’t know me.”

Hey, lake!

Field frost

Long-necked
shadow of the pine
stretching ‘cross the frosted
stubble of the field;
elegant, tender,
as the sun burns away
last night’s
lacey
blanket.

But the pine,
lingering,
clinging to that tattered blanket,
whispers to the stubbled field
– just five
more
minutes.

Moira Dunphy May, 2016

New

New breath
New start
New oath
New new

December twenty-first to
June twenty-first to
December twenty-first
This is planet time

The earth is fickle
It yearns for light;
Sweet light
Burn-the-eyes-through-closed-lids light
It strains towards

Either we are creeping towards
The longest night of the year
Or crawling to the longest day
Either we gratefully succumb to more and more dark
Or we demand more and more light
Either anticipate the dark all light long
Or crave the light all dark long
Oh, impetuous we.

Moira Dunphy January 1, 2016