Drawing by Judith Wolfe
CATHERINE MAIR AND PATRICIA PRIME

Poem


      DUSTING OFF

      cleaning cats' saucers before the toddler arrives
      addressing envelopes at the kitchen table - sound of voices
      jazzing up his task he squirts the girls with a hose
      on their way to buy corncobs ... their best smiles
      tilted on top of the tractor's exhaust, a rusty can
      perched on the clothespole - a tui
      one by one red-hot-pokers raided by birds & bees
      scent of mown grass drifts through a window
      produce entering the back door in plastic bags
      taste of bitter plums with lots of sugar!
      against a clay bank pale green ladder ferns growing taller
      silver sheen of cleaned hubcaps - his new car


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