"Reality, as always, was narrow and dull,"
Wrote Mavis Gallant of Montreal ca. 1944,
And I suspect she didn't mean just Quebec.
Waiting for the promised parting of leaden
Skies on Father's Day, nothing doing. I spent
The day with daughter. At a cafe, the cashier
Teased her. "Shouldn't you be buying your
Father's lunch?" Daughter shrugged, smiled,
Always game for the inscrutable joking
Of adults. At six it's best to be polite
And worry about the meaning missed later.
Time drizzled through, relative as ever.
Sooner or later it will be time to go uphill,
Find the little pond where the frogs spawned
And collect the temporary tadpoles. Mavis
Gallant was not entirely wrong, but narrow
Reality is generally unreal and not entirely
Dull. The chilly air shivered with summer,
The shouts of children, the dragonfly wings.
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