I must use everything I’ve learned

I tell myself now, I must use everything I’ve learned. 
From her time in Greenland, raising her daughter alone. 
There was a painter, he was a good man but a child 
could not run around his studio while he worked. 
He needed silence. Then she was a teacher in Denmark, 
then a teacher of teachers which she liked most of all. 
Many other things but now: I tell myself, 
I must use everything I’ve learned. 
Coming against her on the bridge, a stern face. 
You shouldn’t let bananas go to waste! 
She took the bunch that I’d bought, 
almost black now, made a cake, 
she was sorry not to ask permission
but she couldn’t let them go to waste.  
Standing on the bridge to Svinøya, 
the footpath is crushed snow and ice. 
Tricky as climbing to the summit of Fløya. 
Mountains, ocean, time — defeat on the Kungsleden — 
no matter, grind it all up, make use of it all.  
And that face of mischief, that arctic climber, 
She’s reaching the pole of her life. 
That night, we had banana cake 
when Jan Gunnar came to see about the mice. 

Laurence O’Dwyer | Jan Gunnar Retires from the Sea
Contents | Mudlark No. 79 (2024)