Amanda Laughtland
December 30, 1942
Sitting at the station with just
a little street light. Sure have
had fun. Loads of kids
on our bus. With a different
route past Redding, we’ll make
Santa Monica 4:30 Thursday
instead of 10:52. Taking off now
into Sacramento. So long
for tonight. No light on the bus.
May 6, 1957
We made it to Salem without
the dog getting sick, and the kids
are already happy here. They started
school Tuesday, and the boys had
friends coming over by Friday.
Everyone seems real friendly. The house
is old but convenient, close
to shopping. I can walk downtown
in ten minutes. I guess we’ll
stick with it for a while.
May 12, 1981
How’d I ever reach the top
of the Acropolis? I’ll never know.
Practically straight up! Athens
was fantastic. Houses and people
spread in every direction. Rome
was humid, Venice fogged in.
Today at sea for Istanbul
it’s overcast but warm. My thanks
for the seat cushions—very useful!
Amanda Laughtland lives with her partner in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington in the house where her grandparents used to live. She teaches English part-time at a community college (edcc.edu) and works part-time as a clerk for a public library system (sno-isle.org). The poems above are part of a series (tentatively titled ‘Postcards to Box 464’) inspired by a box of postcards inherited from a family friend who died in early 2004 at the age of 99. Other poems from this series appear online at Shampoo, Mastodon Dentist and Right Hand Pointing.