Rêve au chocolat

BY RUTH PANOFSKY

On the Montreal terrace
my mother
sips her chocolat chaud
from a small white bowl
it’s like drinking velvet
we share ice cream
three scoops
chocolat vanille noisette
from a larger bowl
also white
as I lament
the constraints
on human connection
in COVID time
she is displaced
to a world
less altered
strolls familiar streets
guided by
her beloved grandfather
coddles a baby brother
safe in her arms
kicks ball
on the scrappy turf
of youth
in chocolate reverie
she returns to
a time of grounding
as our ice cream melts
in the fading
warmth of evening

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RUTH PANOFSKY has published three volumes of poetry, most recently Radiant Shards: Hoda's North End Poems (Inanna Publications, 2020). Her award-winning Laike and Nahum: A Poem in Two Voices (Inanna Publications, 2007) has been translated into French by Antonio D'Alfonso and will appear in 2022 with Norôit. She lives in Toronto and teaches at Ryerson University.