Girls: The Green Time
write down what you can
in whatever notation you have,
and pass it on
âLen Anderson
âą
Pat Hurdle
Arleen McCart
Susan Hurdle
Donna McCart
Miriam Bartleman
Judy McTavish
Judy Palmer
Barbara Palmer
Susan McTavish
Peggy Townsend
Patsy Smith
Pammy Thomson
Lynn McTavish
Lizzy Hurdle
Marnie Mustard
Leslie Oldacre
Mary Jane Tatlock
Mary Jane Norris
Antje Grope
Sylvie Gagné
Games
suppose a rope suppose linear a trope is not always not
necessarily round not a birthday a cake hiding ten shining dimes
not a celebration a rope might be plastic it could be red
or it could be made of brown hemp long enough and an occasion to jump
an occasional recourse to hold something or someone or lasso
there is always an end to hold sometimes two if there are two ends
two girls must hold one at each end of the span
if there is chalk there might be a game hopping into squares or accidentally
not into squares the squares are numbered
then they are hopped over or into sequentially hope always hovers a friend
is always hopeful at the top under a curved line
the word HOME
and a smooth stone if there is a phone
there is assonance and a party line
a party line is not always a party or political the phone
is Bakelite necessarily at that time black chalk is white
or it might be yellow cylindrical chalk is to sock
as thistle is to ditch or whistle stitch is to knot as clot is to cream
which is not the case here
suppose the sock is navy blue paired it could be a white sock
with a short cuff the sort of sock that can be worn into a classroom
the game might be considered friendly if apple if thistle
if thistle in spring it might include fairies if unfriendly
there will be repercussions a customary sadness spoons too
can be friendly an indication of alphabet soup
and marbles glass zero round blues
catâs eyes and zero round translucent greens
more than five friends takes a great deal of time
more than five marbles makes a respectable game
no one played jacks
Firsthand
In the inside there is deluge, on the outside there is missing. Somewhere is refuge. Quickening. Listen. Let is-ness then be the business, let mothers into story if only for a few more years. If quickening, there may be answers, wind, chance literation, chance marriages, misfits, chance the first chance, do not reprove the child asking questions. Let blue angora mittens, a black cat, second fiddle. There is a second layer, liar, liar, pants on fire. Never mind, there is always porridge with a sift of salt and garbage bins under the sink whispering misery in an off-key pitch. Cinch your belts, no one here is as rich as you may wish. Hey diddle, diddle, kit and kaboodle, cows, spoons, a cat in a fix. In the inside there are two. In the outside, there is one and one sitting, unseeing what will be missing. Heaven whistles by in its finite fevered way, tin whistle stops and lingerie, saxifrage and lingering, and tips. Q-tips. Second storey is higher than first, pinch me if Iâm wrong, never mind, the second story is typically too blue, too long.
Circle as ellipsis
Green was the Circleâs true name
half-ellipsis was the circleâs true shape
orbiting the bungalowed brick spawning girls
all the girls wore jackets of green fairy lore
woven leaves mosses and pale fescue grasses
a green mesh of girls friendships and fights
some wished for flight every birthday
when they blew out their candles they wanted to fly
I make half of this up some wished for kindness
a new dress a good mark their average number was twice
their combined average age half-flying
half-fairies half-launching from the small mound of a hill
beyond the streetâs elliptical orbit
behind the ring of northside houses their hair spuming
spinning milkweed in spring sometimes burred
a world within worlds in their mouths
were thin greenstick twigs
pussy willows sumac marbles pink bubble gum
their teeth were small and imperfect
their shoulder blades wing bones unfeathered
their feet rubber-soled
True or false
- Do fairies have wings?
- Magical, spacious as sky?
- Imaginary?
- Governed by Queens?
- Before humans or elves?
- Silver coins for bloodied first teeth?
- Changelings for children?
- Green jackets or red? Fiction or fashion?
- Gay speculation?
- If you donât see them, are they still in the green woods?
âą
In the dream I drive along Church Avenue, past Martin Avenue, and over the small bridge onto Green Circle. Circling back. A friend in the passenger seat, short hair, wearing a silk scarf. This is where I grew up, I tell her. These bungalows are so old, she says. But the brick walls look fresh to me in their angled tangled green gardens, and some houses have been recently renoâd.
I wonder if Iâll be able to locate Pat Hurdleâs old house, and yes, I know it by its place in the row of houses as I drive slowly by, one down from my old red brick house, and also by the white birch, taller now than the roof, and by the old Ponderosa in the front yard. The house doesnât look like its old self. Completely refurbished, I decide. Past the Shumsâ. Then we stop in front of my old bungalow, which doesnât resemble its former self either. Immediately an aged couple in the back seat, who have bee...