excerpt from the ongoing Failures Diary
i go to pick up my kid
at his crèche
that’s a fancy european word
for daycare
instead of bundling him away
i slump a seat on the floor
in an alcove-like space
and look out at snow in the garden
it’s quite peaceful
a poem starts composing in my head
the other parents’ voices
begin to fade away
my son is playing
with another boy
going up and down
up and down a slide
built into the wall
laughing laughing
his friend comes over
grinning,
right up close,
pokes me hard in the cheek,
says
who are you?
**
water freezes in the air
we call it snow
people in the next room are talking talking
making a racket racket, I sit still
as their voices begin to fade
and become inanimate,
a chair or something,
it feels a bit like being stoned
outside through the window
i notice wind
exploding small puffs
of snow from trees
the window makes observation
of cold effortless
I must remember to look up
‘the invention of glass’
–Amsterdam, January 2013
Cralan Kelder is the author of Give Some Word
Photo from Flickr Creative Commons
