On the Calendar
The last job of the fading year
is transferring the important dates
of birthdays and anniversaries,
policy renewals, the prompts
to ‘save the day’, the cards to buy, parties
we’ll plan, perhaps outdoors, if we get
the weather. Memories distract me
of the cold July we had our silver wedding,
or the night when Sally knocked
her wineglass in the pond, while Vic
and Ian spent an hour to say
how much they hated parties,
and Joyce danced up the road to home.
Then there’s a month that’s full
of booby-traps – two days, a week apart,
when cards won’t be required.
May gets me in the gullet, every time.
Elizabeth Rimmer has published three poetry collections with Red Squirrel Press, Wherever We Live Now (2011), The Territory of Rain, (2015) and Haggards (2018), and is currently working on a fourth, Burnedthumb. More here: https://burnedthumb.co.uk/#page