After School
on special days
I walked
past the yellow buses
waved to friends
in Number Seventeen
that usually took me home
at the end of the lane
I crossed the street
continued
past Mrs. Hertz’s place
with its jungle garden
kittens playing tigers
and down the block
to Grandma’s house
inside her warm kitchen
I sat at the table
drank hot chocolate
ate fresh cinnamon buns
then
our lesson
knitting needles clicked
while she told stories
to the rhythm
of knit one, purl one
stopping only
to untangle my yarn
or the twists in her plot
fifteen years later
I walk the same walk
after school ends
and my students have gone home
past Mrs. Hertz’s house
now empty
her twenty-two year old cat
put down after a neighbour
found the woman dead
when I open the back door
of my grandmother’s house
there are no buns
and the kitchen is cold
I eat my supper
warmed in the microwave,
among her things
now strange to me
sorted into piles
to give away
no lesson except
her knitting needles
in a basket
with the yarn
~ Angela Kublik
Angela Kublik is an Edmonton based writer whose poetry has appeared in The Prairie Journal,
Read Angela Kublik’s poetry:
– New Year
– Summer Away
– Fire Tower on Nose Mountain
Editor’s note: This post is from Home and Away – a sequel to the bestselling Writing the Land (2007). Look for one poet to be featured each day as Alberta poets ponder the question “what is home?†and explore our complex relationship with working on, living with, exploiting and protecting our land and our home. For more information about the project, click here.
Leave a Reply