Travel and Loss

Fault Line

Once in Iceland
I stretched my arms
between the continental divide
Bumpy black igneous rock
tangible crevice

Going home
Coming home
always in between

My heart
a fault-line between continents

Five time zones
Flying round the world
never landing
on the right spot

Aging mother needs her daughter
Pre-school son needs his mother
I need both

Visits don’t quite do it
each parting a little death
Crying on both ends
always in between

Beneath the crevice
close to the surface
magma my conundrum

Frances: “When are you coming to Canada?
Well, we will have a glorious reunion!”

—Carolyn Gammon, from the manuscript of On Her Own Terms: Poems about Memory, Loss and Living Life to the Fullest. Quotation by her mother, Frances Firth Gammon.

Carolyn Gammon with Frances on her 90th birthday.

Coming soon: Gabriella Goliger’s article on Carolyn Gammon.

Iceland photo credit: Martin Riese.