sweet little start of me
through ancient mist I see you
aping our mother’s daily routine
washing yesterday’s dollies dresses
while she scrubs the sheets
concentration creasing your cute face
as you rinse and squeeze the tiny pieces
your fingers bleached and shrivelled by the task
and later
you mix a cake
grinning in vanilla-kissed contentment
while she cooks dinner
for your father, your brothers and your sister
a ginger cat curls round young calves
his tail tickling your giggly knees
his unpredictability tripping your feet
I see you
distant as as the stony stream
flowing around the stones
in the crook of our childhood valley
silent as a graveyard angel
frozen in the photographs of my imagination
I tried to keep you near
but you sank away
clinging to what you thought you could keep forever
instead of growing with me
I miss you
and what I expected to be
©Jane Paterson Basil
Lovely. Things were so much simpler as a kid…
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There were always difficult decisions to be made though like whether to go swimming in the river, climb trees, or go and see my friend whose mum made amazing pies 🙂
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To have to deal with those difficult decisions again… Sigh
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Yep…
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Like this!
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Thank you 🙂
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“I miss you
and what I expected to be”
That’s a very poignant line. Makes me really think about my younger aspirations.
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The truth is that what I expected was to stay little, with my mother by my side, forever. I grew up, and left the four year old behind. She’s still there, with her perfect life, and I can’t reach her. Isn’t it that way for all of us?
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I liked your simulcast of childhood and adult!
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Thank you! I had to look that word up, and now I ‘m going to use it at every opportunity, to find out if my friends are as illiterate as me 🙂
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You are too funny! You are anything but illiterate! (<:
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Your rite – wen I discuvver a reely dificult wurd like House, or Retail, I no how to find owt wot it meens 😀 😀
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(<:
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‘crook of our childhood valley
silent as a graveyard angel
frozen in the photographs of my imagination’
Very clever 🙂
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Thank you Raili.
Words are magical – my heart soars when I find the right ones – it’s like watching the sun rise on a spring morning, and real though the emotions behind this poem are, the feel of the words fitting together made me thankful. It’s a spiritual thing.
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You’re absolutely right – on all counts !
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A sad elegy to your young self. I loved the last line too – all those things we thought we’d do and achieve that have somehow passed us by. Lovely Jane
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Thank you Lynn xx
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My pleasure 🙂
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Jane, you have evoked mixed feelings with this poem. Brilliant!!!
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Thank you – this is one of my recurring themes.
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You are welcome.
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