On the Threshold

by Ros Schwartz © 1996
www.dancinginthewind.ca

Midnight March 23rd, 1982

in memory as bright as day:
my mother standing on the front porch waving
my father turning back to give her
“one last kiss before we become grandparents”

My mother would never have understood
why my father detoured past the tennis courts
to see if they were dry

This was his security:
something solid in a world
of change and transformation

He’d never before
driven a daughter
to the hospital in labour
but he had played tennis
many times.

Published in Canadian Woman Studies Journal
Fall 1996 - Volume 16, Number 4 - Jewish Women in Canada