By Patricia A. McGoldrick

She answered the door, said a quick hello
And gave me a warm embrace
Took my weathered grey raincoat
Then we sat down at the dining room table
Covered with fine Irish lace.
Round and crisp creamy crackers
Were waiting with butter and cheese
She poured her strained tea into bone china
With as much cold white milk as I pleased.
The flight going over was smooth, she said
But her Mother had looked so small
It was only when she reached for her Ma’s wool knitted sweater
That a daughter’s tears started to fall.
It would have cost too much to return for the funeral, you see,
But those days just before meant the world to her and to me…. 
 
 

Patricia A. McGoldrick’s  poems, essays and reviews  have been published in various works:  The Grand Table Anthology; Love and Longing in the Near North;  Ice: New Writing on Hockey;  WaterWell;  Cross Cultures; Textshop; The Record newspaper; Wellington County History; Lives of the Saints newsletter.  Patricia lives in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada