Rituals

There are some weird traditions around New Year: make a noise, i.e. party horns, sirens, to say goodbye to the old year; eat lucky food (bannocks in Ireland, 12 grapes at midnight in Spain); drink wassail in parts of England, hot spiced wine in Holland. And, of course, there are always New Year resolutions (I don’t make them) …

RITUALS

between feasts                                       
when time drops
out of sync

dogs beg shadows
cats sit black
red-haired men
coal their pockets

women comb long hair
into grates
clocks spin
out of control
from noon to moon
where beginnings end
finality starts

in this week
before next year

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A Summer Father … Here is poetry … interweaving images culled from a wartime childhood with bittersweet memories of a “summer father”. Lynda Monahan