Driving to St. John’s, past the turn-offs for Little Heart’s Ease, St. Jones Within, Dark Hole River, remembering the village near where we slept last night in almost unbelievable beauty, the fog horn sounding, lights from across Trinity Bay soft in the darkness, the village with its memorial pillar a recitation of loss: Drowned, Drowned, Killed in France, Drowned. Driving back and seeing the signs on the edge of the Trans Canada Highway warning of moose, even more than warning, in fact promising flashing lights when moose were on the road (but then also saying that the lights were out of order), deciding to leave the highway to meander over to Witless Bay, over low hills of alder and spruce, walking out for the wonderful pizza at Piatto (there’s one in Halifax and one here), and hearing music in the bars on George Street as we returned to the B&B where we are spending on our last night in Newfoundland.
Tag: Piatto Pizzeria
Ae fond kiss
Twice I cried today, though once was prolonged, on the citadel above Halifax where everything I saw and remembered reminded me of the lapses in my own emotional accounting of what I owed, and to whom. And once, this evening, as we listened to the beautiful Scottish singer, Rachel Sermanni, sing a song I tried to sing when I took voice lessons, “Ae Fond Kiss” by the complicated and extraordinary Robert Burns:
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee!
All day I have felt those heart-wrung tears, in the Public Gardens, on Citadel Hill, over pizza at the wonderful Piatto Pizzeria, remembering early life with my parents, my brothers, while my patient and lovely husband held my hand.
...Theresa Kishkan 