From Water Strider, published by Frontenac House in 2008. Karen Hofmann lives in Kamloops.

Patsy’s daughter Sarah met a woman

who had an alter ego named Edna.On Tuesdays this woman would dressin Edna’s clothes, clean the house.

On Monday night the woman would

tell her kids to pick up their toys;

Edna did not care about their toys, she said.

Edna would just throw them away.

The woman’s husband wanted to fire Edna

to save money, but the woman insisted

she be kept on. She didn’t tell her family

the truth about Edna until the kids were all

grown up and gone from home.

If I had an alter ego, she’d be called Nikki

and she’d wear sleek jeans and midriff-baring tops

and ride on the backs of motorcycles

driven by 27-year-old guys. She’d drink

in bars along the East Trans-Canada

in mid-afternoon. On Mondays,

she’d tell her kids to leave their clothes

on the floor. She’d come home Tuesdays,

kick off her high-heeled boots, shake out

her smoky hair. Tell her husband,

“Tie me up.”