Hallway Prop

Andrew and I live in a condo that is a neighborhood of its own. Every Christmas Season many of the residents celebrate with a holiday dinner, providing everyone the chance to meet newcomers and catch up with old friends.

Last night's get together brought to mind the quiet couple who once lived across from us. At the time I wrote this poem, I still harbored the hope that they could continue to be our neighbors.



Hallway Prop


A hum-drum vignette dominates
the end of the corridor on our floor:
faux flowers set
beneath a Flemish water scene

belonging to George and Edna
across the hall, undisturbed

until the year I volunteered
to change the decor for Christmas.

But Edna moved to Memory Care,
and during the Holidays
George left on a medic's stretcher,
confused.

Come New Year's Day
Santa and his sleigh packed away.
The bare glass table more disquieting
than Sunday papers waiting for Monday

until those familiar posies ambushed me
once again, strangely handsome. George restored.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor