Go Fly a Kite

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So I contributed a prose poem to Carin Makuz' The Litter I See Project: litter inspired writing by Canadian writers, for literacy.

The project is supposed to benefit Frontier College, which has "been recruiting dedicated volunteers to work with Canadian children, youth and adults from all over Canada since 1899." Frontier College also organizes the Giller Light Bashes around the country...

Carin sent me this image of a scrap of paper and asked me to write something.

I immediately fastened on the words/concept "Julie Andrews." I mean, she gamboled through the fields of my childhood, looking radiant and behaving sensibly. But she was the ultimate maiden (Maria) and crone (Mary Poppins): even though she was providing all kinds of childcare, she was removed, somehow, from the grit of it all. She made it look easy, as long as you had a magic carpetbag and some spare curtains.

And nothing about trying to balance a job and a partner, a child and a house, is easy. 

So this is my fanciful pushback, including taking the title of Mary's anthem "Let's Go Fly a Kite" and shortening it to "Go Fly a Kite," which is what my mother advised me to tell the people who were picking on me in elementary school.