The line “I know their footsteps” is taken from the Canadian poet Alden Nowlan’s poem, ‘What Colour is Manitoba?’

The poem can be found in his 1977 collection, ‘Smoked Glass’.

Alden Nowlan (1933-83)

My collection ‘I Know Their Footsteps’ will be launched at the Lit & Phil, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne on Monday September 30th @ 7.00 p.m.

This is my seventh collection and sixth for Red Squirrel Press.

And here is the title poem.

“I know their footsteps” (Alden Nowlan)

Granny Kelly’s blue-grey proggy mat
ripples in front of the coal fire,
my unmarried uncles beeing around,
as if it’s July not Christmas,
smelling of debt and loss.

This fake, jolly air makes me feel nervous,
a lone child crossing a too-busy road,
it won’t go away, even now. Granny’s home
a working class museum:
deep maroon brocade tablecloth,
toilet paper, precise squares of newspaper,
curled-lip of brown canvas in the kitchen,
sweating dank coal-house.

I am inches away from them,
not sharing their Merry Christmas.

Tom Kelly