Jo Peters
Sweet Peas
My grandmother lived to be very old,
and after she died I always saw
her small and wispy, sitting in a fug
of fire and smoky joss sticks burnt to mask
the smell of urine. One day, on display,
a crinkled tinfoil cube of oasis,
and into gritty foam she’d stuck stiff heads
of daffodils which stared this way and that.
Quavery, enjoying our bright praise,
she’d made it at the Day Centre, she said.
There she crouched in this undusted, dim
corner of memory, until, this year,
I coaxed sweet peas from their gunpellet seeds,
came home to find the sunny garden’s air
held tendrils of a light remembered scent
that held me, pulled me back across the years.
We both ran past our tall straight grandmother,
my brother first into the flower tent,
breasting the crowds, the hot forgotten scent
of canvas, crushed grass and a million flowers.
We saw a trestle table with a sign
‘Six Sweet Peas in a Vase’ over a flock
of pastel butterflies that, poised for flight,
all angled to admire pale reflections,
sunned themselves in their own scent. But our
eyes gobbled up a red, gold-lettered card.
‘You’ve won, Granny, you’ve won first prize!’ we yelled.
She shushed us, told us not to make a fuss.
Our eyebrows, at each other, over grins,
said people get a bit odd when they’re old.
Page(s) 49
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