Time and Motion Study

A love song to my husband

Note: If anyone should think this poem is a strange way to express one's love for one's husband, please be reassured. It reflects our sense of humour. And its essence is truthful.


To start at the beginning:
What force transcribes our lives?
What planets collide to change
the course of ants?
What casual occurrence aeons ago
determines our path?

My mother had plenty to say:
“You could have had anyone, if you’d
only wear make-up.”
She had a list—descending, of course:
• A doctor, not in Obstetrics
• A lawyer, not Jewish
• A rich American, not Mormon
• A nice man in middle management.

My husband failed the grade.
But I, desperate and dateless at 39,
took him on.
He told his mother we had met
on Perfect Match, where I was Number 3.
He told me he had money.
He told me the planets had collided
and our fate forged in the fires within.
So be it.

If dogs at airports were trained
to sniff out losers
they would stop at John and bark.
I look at the Milky Way and question
the arbitrariness of life:
distant, indifferent planets colliding away,
making of us what they will.
Down here, off-course as usual,
we toast the kindness of stars.




Cathy McCallum

And The Band Played On

A true story.


Grandpa Jimmy, my Grandpa Jimmy -
Quick as a flash he would shimmy
Up rope ladders and along wet planks
To slam white hot rivets in the cold steel flanks
Of the massive hull held in the slip -
The fastest, biggest ever ship.
Grandpa Jimmy, toughest of men.
Plater. Belfast. 1910.

Grandpa Jack, my Grandpa Jack -
Full speed ahead, on course, on tack
He upped anchor to explore the world
Wherever the Union Jack unfurled.
A merchant sailor born to roam -
Rarely, hardly ever, home.
Grandpa Jack, no man's fool.
1912. Liverpool.

One built the ship, one joined the crew,
Though neither man the other knew.
But not for Grandpa Jack the thrill
Of her maiden voyage – he called in ill.
With pomp and cheers she sailed away -
And though he thought he'd rue the day
There came the ice, the fear, the panic:
The ship Jimmy built was named Titanic.



John McCallum 2009