“chess moves” by Anne Farrer
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “chess moves” by Anne Farrer.
chess moves
By Anne Farrer
Itโs not like you lived down the street, instead it was a drive and a ferry reservation and, well, time, you
know? and who had any of that once the kids came, so we faded from each otherโs lives. Perhaps it was
uncomfortable amongst the balanced circle of pairs.
When you finally visited my grown-up suburban home you pinched my elbow and whispered You have a
really beautiful home, Annie. I suppose a far cry from the peach and electric blue walls of my bedroom
we painted that one summer.
Earlier, weโd combed Vancouver’s streets; looking for ourselves in the racks of A&B Sound. You looked
effortlessly cool in your fringed suede jacket, the one Chris teased made you โBonoโs girlfriendโ; but I was
still young enough to put a boy’s judgement ahead of my own.
We came back to our studio apartment one day after trying on perfume at Eatonโs, a long trek on the 120
bus in those days, and were told by a hometown boy it smelled too sophisticated for us.
I wonder if he ever understood that that was the whole point?
Now, I canโt remember all of our secrets, our jokes, or the ingredients in the love potions we made in my
back field, my brain choosing to drop all those important things; leaving me instead with unhelpful
knowledge like the movement rules of chess pieces.
Your Mom used to make us french toast when I slept over; which seemed very gourmet to a girl from
Dove Creek; but I remember whispering in the dark, staring at the Duran Duran posters, safe in the warm
nest of your room.
I asked if you’d be around when I came to town on the weekend โฆ but you said you already had plans.
Copyright ยฉ Anne Farrer
Anne Farrer is a Vancouver Island based writer of poetry and prose. A keen observer of the human condition, her work reflects the beauty and humour of everyday life. Her writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail First Person section; plus Sea & Cedar, InHabit and Comox Valley Collective magazines, and she has two self-published chapbooks. She lives by the sea and dreams about a certain crow.
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