Short & Sometimes Sweet

By Mary Jenkins

Short & Sometimes Sweet reflects a long and varied life: from childhood memories of the Second World War to the travails and pleasures of old

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debbie Lee
• Release date: Jul 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781760419424

Mary Jenkins

Mary Jenkins is a retired elementary teacher from Pineville, Kentucky. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Union College, with a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Rank I Degree in Elementary Education. She enjoys traveling, songwriting, reading, and singing and playing folk songs on her guitar. She is a former Sunday School teacher and youth leader. She is married to Ed Jenkins, and they have one son, Ben, who plays banjo, and his wife, Kathryn, who plays fiddle. Mary and her husband currently reside in Pineville, with their dog, Mandy.

Book preview

Short & Sometimes Sweet

Short & Sometimes Sweet

Mary Jenkins

Ginninderra Press

Short & Sometimes Sweet

ISBN 978 1 76041 942 4

Copyright © text Mary Jenkins 2020

Cover photo by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash

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All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be sent to the publisher at the address below.

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First published 2020 by

Ginninderra Press

PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide 5015

www.ginninderrapress.com.au

Contents

Short & Sometimes Sweet

Acknowledgements

Fall down seven times, stand up eight

– Japanese saying, Presentation Zen

Short & Sometimes Sweet

A Simple Life

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My mother’s backlit hair

once like a horse’s mane

is soft as wool pickings

in a mouse nest.

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Her wrinkles deepen

around her greying eyes.

as she tries to tell me

what happened today.

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She is stalled.

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Down into memory

she reaches, to the time

when she knew

princesses and queens

yet chose a simple life

with the boy next door.

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Silent now, she fidgets

with her tight wedding ring

remembering that boy

who died before

her youngest learnt to talk.

Peter

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A baby’s picture

cut from a magazine

is on the bedroom wall.

We stare at it

my sister and I.

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People peep at us.

We don’t know them.

Shush, they say, shush.

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We pretend bed knobs

are fountains.

Disappointed, we look

at the picture again.

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We do not understand

this is not our Peter.

Saturday Morning Pictures

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We sit close to the front

sucking gobstoppers

ready for thrills

the Saturday treat:

Cowboys & Indians

Black Beauty or Lassie Come Home.

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Kids shuffle shoes

rustle bags of sweets.

An organ appears

We bounce and sing along:

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Mares eat oats and does eat oats

and little lambs eat ivy…

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Curtains slide apart.

The picture starts with shushes

quick dips into paper bags.

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A huge cock crows

when the picture ends

announcing Pathé