Soft Shoe Shuffle

to the heroines — the famous and the obscure

Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

I know a woman happily demented
She scatters petals as she sleeps,
Sings the songs of the 1940s,
Thinks she is Bo Peep, incarnate.

She worked in a cake shop
War put her to the test.
She casts her mind back and lets it rest.
Passes that test of time. In a concocted rhyme.

Dresses her hair in a yellow head scarf
Says apropos of nothing but the truth:
“The hyacinth will soon be out. I love
The smell of hyacinth.” I tell her, “I do too.”

We do the soft shoe shuffle and I sing
“On Mother Kelly’s doorstep, down Paradise Row”.
I love spending time with her in rain or sun, or falling snow.
She is my mum and I love her so.