Robyn Sarah(b. 1949)
Courtney, Mentioned in Passing, Years After
"The most beautiful girl in the college,
and she had to go move to Thailand!
he says her name, and it turns out
you knew her, years ago:
you remember her from when she was small,
decked out as Pharaoh's daughter
in the Grade Two play, in an amazing dress
her mother cut for her, designed
with the help of colour plates
from the school encyclopaedia, Volume E.
You remember how she,
who lived to ride horses, who drew
(in ink) horses on every surface of her
fuchsia and mauve and turquoise and pink
vinyl ring-binders, used
to punish herself at recess
when her team lost
at murder-balP—dodge hall
how
(almost weeping in her fury)
she would cry, " O h —
I hate the horses now!
For a m o m e n t , then, in Montreal,
in F e b r u a r y slush, shifting f r o m foot to foot
in the bus-stop line, you think
of C o u r t n e y in Thailand, hating the horses.
You see her there,
grown up, but still
in her Egyptian sleeves. Her s u d d e n
wake of colours.