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Women’s Work

On a cold winter’s day,
Under a bright blue sky
with white snow on the ground
that flashed like a million diamond,
James walked the mile to his neighbor’s house.
Now Steve’s wife, Alice, was a Czech
and while Steve spoke English poorly,
she was a women gifted with words,
who worked as hard as any two men
That he knew on those lovely open Manitoba plains.
The family was gathered around the kitchen table.
Alice (as is the custom in those parts) put in front of him a hearty meal of eggs, blood sausage, heavy black coffee, and toast,
covered with gooseberry jam she had made from their garden.
A golden moment!
Now James liked black pudding, and he liked to cook,
so he asked Alice for the recipe she used
because he knew that they had no cattle or pigs.
She told him that she used the ducks that she
raised in the dugout pond, (about 50 each year)
and she said that if he’d like to watch her make it
to come over the next Fall.
Steve, who was seated behind Alice, gestured “NO!”
taking care not to be seen by his spouse.
Silly man!
So one bright sunny autumn day when James saw her catching the ducks
he went over to see black pudding being made.
Alice and her two daughters were seated in the garage.
Steve, who happened to be outside
Gave him a jaundice eye, but said nothing.
Alice took a duck, and while holding him,
bent his bill down to his neck
and taking a sharp knife
cut the artery at the back of his neck…
letting the thick red blood spurt into a bowl.
The bloodless duck, when dead
Was then passed to the first daughter who plucked
the down for pillows, who then
passed the body on to the other daughter,
who gutted and dressed it for the freezer.
Keeping his manly poise
James watched for a while, and then went outside.
Steve was there with a smile on his face.
He told James that he had passed out the first time he saw it.
James ate Alice’s sausage after that,
but never again with such joy.