ginger snaps – iced by Norma Kerby

Poem title: ginger snaps – iced

Poet name: Norma Kerby

Poem: never schedule a meeting in November or December

every weekend including Fridays is booked with bazaars and

Christmas sales and concerts and other ways to raise money

as purses open and wallets flap with good will

 

it would have been easier to donate the money

 

butter alone cost more than what they charged

for the carrot cake and those ginger snaps

she worked half a day making them and put them

into her favourite container and they sold

that too

 

then Ralph

still a widower

came in with twelve loaves of bread

he made himself

now that would be a catch

a man who baked

for church bazaars but he slipped through

the back door

and

passed in the bread like illegal contraband

she tried

to talk to him but he was too quick and

disappeared but so did

her special tin with the hinged lid and

pictures of Princess Diana’s

wedding

End of poem.

Credits and bio: Copyright © Norma Kerby

 

Previously published in Prairie Journal on-line, Fall, 2017.

 

Norma Kerby appreciates the roles that poetry can play in conversations about societal and environmental issues. As a member of the writing group, Writers North of 54, she was recently involved in a project with the Prince Rupert Public Library to distribute donated copies of the (M)othering Anthology (Inanna Publications, 2022) to libraries and reading rooms in northern British Columbia. Her chapbook, “Shores of Haida Gwaii”, is an ecological exploration of the unique shorelines of these important islands. In addition to writing, she is also involved in monitoring amphibians and garter snakes and working for the preservation of wetlands and other unique habitats in northwest B.C.