TWO POEMS by Erin Stewart

Poet Erin Stewart

The Boy Nobody Liked
St. Catharines, 1981

In kindergarten, I remember
the boy nobody liked:
unkempt hair, unclean face
uncared for heart.
A slice of baloney
in a puddle outside
- rejected lunch perhaps,
from his invisible mother.

In kindergarten, I remembr
the boy nobody liked.

Maybe his mother
loved him more than
clean haircuts
and fancy soap.
Possibly his heart was
cared for, no monetary
value attached.

In kindergarten, I remember
the boy nobody liked...

The baloney in the puddle
an unlikely moon,
its reflection sure to shine yet
from murky waters.




Gift
Cobourg, 1984

In Cobourg, we walked home for lunch;
sometimes on our way back
met the mailman at his green box

Gigantic, clad in dusty blues and greys,
he'd shove his hand in his mailbag,
pull out a mitt-full of beige elastic bands,
the kind I later snapped in multiples
over bunches of bills,
when I became a casual carrier.

We accepted the bunches
in our eager hands,
carried them back to school,
attached them like chains
to make skipping ropes.

It cost us nothing
and I still remember how.