I like doing laundry and folding the clothes
making green drinks and blue smoothies
riffing on old recipes created
by my grandmother Georgiana Vanhorn
Hanging out with my grandsons
teaching them to read
and playing word games
Poking my head into old churches
looking at the stained-glass windows
the Church of the Holy Trinity
and Our Lady of Perpetual Help
are my favourites
Zikhr-ing early in the morning
feeling the names echoing in my bones
thinking about what my grandfather Neil Campbell
looked like
they say he was tall and thin
Looking at murals by Alfaro and Orozco
reading Monet’s biography
and Kamau Brathwaite’s poems
Standing with you by the Christmas tree
decorating it with red, white, and green balls
thinking: “how can I win your love?”
***
Excerpted from Black Matters by Halifax poet laureate Afua Cooper and photographer Wilfried Raussert. Reprinted with the permission of Roseway, an imprint of Fernwood Publishing.
This poem first appeared in Broadview’s December 2020 issue.
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