Lost in Canterbury

• Facebook
• Instagram

Colette Tennant

__________

Once, after a rough crossing from Calais to Dover,

I entered England for the first time. Unashamed tourist,

traveling alone, I slept the first night at Canterbury’s Pilgrim Inn.

Maybe because I was by myself, they tucked me in a corner room

under the thatched roof eaves.

I thought it was cute and cozy until the next morning,

I had to perform a mermaid move to get out of the soapy water

filling the cute old bathtub with almost no ceiling clearance.

That might have been a warning which I blithely ignored,

determined after my scones and clotted cream and tea breakfast,

to visit the Canterbury Tales tourist center.

From the outside, it looked perfect for an English teacher who has

loved Chaucer for decades. However, after I put on my headphones

and entered the main room, all I saw were ventriloquist dolls

dressed in Renaissance clothes, reciting the Canterbury tales

through plastic lips.

Desperate for escape, I saw an exit sign,

took off my headphones and rushed through the door.

It shut with a bang so loud, the noise seemed to

push the small of my back.

After my eyes adjusted to the light,

I realized there was no doorknob on that side of door.

I turned to see I was in a very old graveyard,

surrounded by what looked like a Dickens movie set –

old tombstones and one raven who

cocked his head in curiosity at my presence,

seemed to wink me a welcome with his shiny black eye.

In three seconds, I had gone from Chaucer to Poe.

With my raven friend squawk-walking behind,

I traced the perimeter guarded by

an iron fence surrounding the whole graveyard.

The fence was twisted and black as ancient sins.

It had one gate locked with thick chains that 

looked like they had once collared Cerberus. 

Had I fallen further from Poe to Dante?

I was trapped and wouldn’t be missed for a long while with my family

5,000 miles away, and Oxford not expecting me for three days.

When I looked up in desperation, I saw, in a window, 

two ladies having tea three stories up

in a building adjacent to the graveyard. I picked up small stones,

threw them at the glass, my raven not sure how to cheer at this point.

The third stone hit with a plink. They looked down, saw me,

sat there laughing for what seemed like a long time, but eventually

a woman came with a huge key on a heavy ring and freed me.

Looking back, I don’t think I said a proper goodbye to my raven.

__________

Colette Tennant having a frighteningly good time dressing up with her grandson.

__________

Colette Tennant has three books of poetry: Commotion of Wings, Eden and After, and Sweet Gothic. Her book, Religion in The Handmaid’s Tale: a Brief Guide, was published in 2019 to coincide with Atwood’s publication of The Testaments. Her poems have won various awards and have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes along with being published in various journals, including Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Southern Poetry Review, and Ireland Poetry Review. Colette is an English and Humanities Professor who has also taught art in Great Britain, Germany, and Italy.

__________

🢠 Back

To learn more about submitting your work to Boudin or applying to McNeese State University’s Creative Writing MFA program, please visit Submissions for details.