At the end of November I made a decision
At the end of November, I made a decision
If we were going to stay in NY over December the least the weather Gods could do is provide a white Christmas
In fairness
This wasn’t really my decision to make
they did make a rather feeble attempt at it, the weather Gods
There it is
Global warming,
Global warming up the wazoo
But never mind
We decorated a tree & ate & opened presents
Coz
Around December 25th I kind of think,
Jewish-smooish
let’s not kid,
I’m keen to conn the Christmas system...
When I first discovered Christmas I considered suing my parents,
back pay for all the christmases denied,
Enchanted as I am by tinsel,
cake,
candy and
presents shimmering with promise under a tree
And also...
Snow
Or the lack thereof
They say the 4th wave of the worldwide epidemic will be mental illness
So, I give thanks,
i do the yoga
& hold on tight to the precious people in my world
Coz,
It scares me how much sense that prediction makes
For a while now I’ve wondered
Why is it that every single person in Trader Joe’s is in a good mood?
Someone told me that it’s the weed.
I was told that everyone who works at Trader Joe’s is stoned
Last time I was there I asked the guy at the check-out if it was true
He just smiled and said
“You should come work here”
Which really does seem like a good idea
I’m a fan of Trader Joe’s
It seems almost as good as the supermarkets in South Africa
I think a lot these days about the ‘old country’
The troubled, exquisite place of my birth
But we’ve been here for a while now.
I’ve started to hear a lazy American lilt
creeping into the consonants of my daughters speech
And,
I want to clutch the words away from her mouth
The way the wind clutches my breath in manhattan in winter
Especially on the days it snows
But
That doesn’t happen so often now
... Global warming
I’ve come also to quietly worry about the closing of boarders
What if something goes wrong?
In the beloved country of my birth.
The country where it never snows
Except that time in 1988
When it snowed in spring
Just for an hour or two
But what a great adventure it was
Like Christmas in July
Except it was September
Stepping out of Trader Joe’s last week I caught the fluttering of snow falling,
But again
It was just the promise
just the few gentle flakes I’ve come to take for granted
And then,
On Monday we woke up and there it was
Snow up the wazoo
Two feet,
Or maybe it was five
What do I know?
Dyslexia and numbers
But there it was
All around us
The magic of snow
Becoz it is magic
Like words on a page
Like having friends actually INSiDE my house
It is magic like the ready laughter in a teenagers stride
The touch of those I love
Like sitting in a theatre
Cheek by jowl with strangers
As we inhale & exhale, not disease, but the transformation of art
also, it is magic
Like silence
Coz when it snows
Even scott is silent
And the sun reflects an iridescent silver off the white ground
then I think
Perhaps we will manage
And the vaccine will come before the 4th wave
The wave of sorrow
And there it is
The magic of snow
Magic like the smiling eyes of the masked wearing guy who laughs as he packs my groceries
at Trader Joe’s