Arrival

Day 10: 'Ezra Pound famously said that “poetry is news that stays news.” While we don’t know about that, the news can have a certain poetry to it. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on one of the curious headlines, cartoons, and other journalistic tidbits featured at Yesterday’s Print, where old new stays amusing, curious, and sometimes downright confusing.' 

I was drawn to a story which appeared in the St Louis Post Dispatch, Missouri, on September 15, 1907, about a barber who shaved two men's heads at once,  because both said they were next in the queue,  and neither would give way to the other.  OK,  I'll admit I'm a bit off prompt because my poem is inspired by,  rather than based on this story,  but it reminded me forcibly of trying to have a conversation with my grandkids,  sometimes two or three at a time! 


Arrival

They are so glad to see me
They clamour for me all at once, 
To come see the new Lego creation,
To sit at the table and draw,
To go upstairs to see the little one's room,
For some undisclosed, or unknown reason. 
Before my coat is hung up on its hook
Small hands reach out to drag me
This way,  then that, 
To follow them, not their brother, not their sister,
Their need being the greater, more urgent, more real.
The impossibility of favouring one over another
Demands the tact of a diplomat,
The wisdom of Solomon, the patience of a Saint,
And I am none of those.  
Instead I laugh, draw them close in enveloping arms, 
Say: that all sounds great, I'd love to, 
But can I have a cuppa with your dad first?


© Copyright 2024. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved








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