Peggy Hale Bilbro

Different Strokes

In my home state of Alabama we greet everyone we pass with a smile, and sometimes a “Hi, how y’all doin’?” The smile is required, but the “how’s it going” part is optional. When we are in Paris I have to remember to just keep walking without comment or eye contact. It’s not unfriendly, it’s just a different way of doing things. However, if we enter a store or bistro and fail to say bonjour or bonsoir we are not likely to receive any service. Finally, we end up in Italy where it seems every person must be greeted with buongiorno or buonasera. The smile is optional, but the greeting is not. My challenge is to remember which country I am in.

crossing paths
with the neighborhood cat
dismissed
with a disdainful tweak
of her tail held high

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About the Author

Peggy Hale Bilbro and her husband divide their time between Huntsville, Alabama, and Guardia Sanframondi, Italy. Her poetry reflects her life-long interest in the large and small miracles of the world, from dust bunnies to stardust, from mouse holes to black holes. She finds pleasure in the creative challenge of translating those miracles into poetry.

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