longer.blue

~ My godmother's house Sixty-six Manitoba My mom called her route ~ The opening line, "My godmother's house," grounds the reader immediately in something intimate and personal. A god-mother's home carries a particular kind of emotional weight — it's a place of belonging that exists just outside the immediate family, a secondary sanctuary. The simplicity of the phrase invites the reader in gently, as if opening a familiar door. The second line, "Sixty-six Manitoba," is where the poem earns its quiet cleverness. On the surface, it's purely geographical — a street address in a Guelph, Ontario, plain and factual. But knowing that the godmother's name is Ruth transforms the number completely. "Route 66" stops being an address and becomes a wink, a nudge, a shared laugh between people who remember gathering around a television set in the early 1960s to watch Route 66, the iconic American drama following two young men wandering the open road. Ruth living at 66 Manitoba is the universe handing the family a punchline they didn't ask for but absolutely deserve. The final line, "My mom called her route," is the poem's most delightful move. It reveals that the nickname wasn't just an observation — it was actively used, spoken aloud, a living part of the family's private language. There's something beautifully tender in that detail. A mother giving her friend a playful alias rooted in pop culture and coincidence speaks to the easy, comfortable humor that exists between people who have known each other long enough to stop being formal. Altogether, the poem captures a flash of lived experience and makes the reader feel the warmth of a specific, irreplaceable relationship. The inside joke doesn't exclude the reader; it welcomes them into the intimacy of it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To support me, visit: https://tinyurl.com/andy-rukes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~