THINGS SHE IS AFRAID TO DO IN AMSTERDAM
She cannot enter a coffee shop.
No way could she swim
into dark caverns of leafy decor
where people nibble cakes
and cookies, smoke and drink coffee.
If she smoked a joint she could forget herself,
abandon control and reject the diamond in the carbon.
As a writer she has been rejected enough already.
Too many times her courage has been thrown back,
back into her face.
If chances must be taken, they should be for great concepts
for big pots and leads that count.
She cannot spend $40.00
on an Indonesian rice table meal.
She paints starving Biafrans
into a picture where they give
a life for a grain of rice,
a breath for a crust of fish.
All the same, she eyes for these sumptuous spreads
of thick food where fat tourists guzzle
making sure they get their money’s worth.
Author’s Bio
Originally from India, JENNIFER FOOTMAN spent most of her life in Edinburgh and is a graduate of that university, coming to Canada in 1979. Her poetry and fiction has appeared in most Canadian literary magazines and several US and UK publications. She lives with cedars and raccoons in Caledon.