Grandpa at the Intersection
Leave a commentJuly 1, 2024 by The Citron Review
by D. Walsh Gilbert
John’s wearing snowpants. It’s July. Betty guides him, puffy swish with each step. The traffic stops despite the greenlight. He makes his way, stays within the crosswalk lines, legs stick-straight. He holds down his trapper hat, earflaps muffling distractions, an early aviator in an open cockpit.
At the kerb, the market is achievable. The day’s daily bread bakes. But, in John’s jacket pocket— only one glove. The other dropped in the gutter back where the two roads converged. Wait here, Dad. I’ll get it, but John has pushed the crosswalk button and stands waiting for the little man to return.
D. Walsh Gilbert is a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland. She has seven poetry collections, the most recent, Finches in Kilmainham (Grayson Books), and forthcoming, Bleat & Prattle (Clare Songbirds Publishing House). She lives in Farmington, Connecticut on a former sheep farm at the foot of Talcott Mountain, previous homelands of the Tunxis peoples. She serves on the board of the Riverwood Poetry Series and as co-editor of the Connecticut River Review.
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