On The Dallas Road

by Don Bell
(Peterborough, Ontario, Canada)

Margaret W. Reid - On The Dallas Road

My Great Aunt Peggy was a remarkable lady and Scottish through and through. She was known for her fancy gelatine desserts and homemade candies, and she loved to write little poems that reflected her bright and optimistic view of life.

In her later years, "Auntie Peggy" lived in her little white house by the sea on the Dallas Road in Victoria, British Columbia. On blustery days, she cheerfully wiped the salt spay from her windows and wrote a poem. Here's one that was always kept carefully tucked in Mom's old recipe book. It was once published in the Victoria Times newspaper in the late 1950s.

On The Dallas Road

Cars run past my neat front door,
I gave up trying to keep the score.
Ships salute as they pass me by
And the lighthouse winks a merry eye.

Puppies are walking their owners out,
Slimming those who are much too stout.
The waves rise high with a wild outcry
Then gently they're lapping their own lullaby.

The gulls aloft are tilting their wings,
Playing they're jets and planes and things.
Lonely I? How could I be?
When there is so much for a lass to see!

--Margaret Wallace Reid