David Huddle: Parable of the Same Scene Every Day for Years

Consider my mother gazing out her window 
over the kitchen sink as she washes breakfast, lunch,
and dinner dishes for fifty-some years. The seasons
infinitesimally change what she sees, so that January
blizzards and August heat waves try to teach her
 
how the world is never the same one blink of the eye
to the next. But if my mother were alive now she’d say 
her life--teenage bride to widow in her seventies--
in that house never varied. In my house I’m six years
 
into these French windows through which I contemplate 
a back yard the size of half a tennis court. Now it’s grey 
as London fog, but later blue sky and charming sunlight
 
will shine as the nurse settles baby me in my mother’s arms,
before evening’s dark sifts down over her grave and mine.
 

David Huddle’s many books include My Surly Heart (LSU, 2019).

Copyright 2020 David Huddle