Stepping Stones (Poetry Monthly)

Cherry

By Silver Spun Sand

Wed, 07 Oct 2015
  • 1904 reads
8 comments
 
Caught up in a whirlwind
of brand new duvets and curtains,
mugs, plates and bowls, electric kettles, 
and toasters.
 
Doing the rounds at IKAE...
getting dizzy just negotiating
the way out.
 
So much so, I’d not considered
what it would be like – the leaving.
 
It didn’t seem five minutes ago,
I’d been buying bibs, nappies,
highchairs and stair-gates.
 
Staying up until the small hours...waiting
for that key to turn in the lock.
 
The rain was coming down in stair-rods, 
as they drove off that morning, in a clapped-out
Morris Minor. The car, packed to the gills 
with duffle-bags and hold-alls – my daughter
and her best mate. 
 
She waved at me, through the leaves 
of a potted, avocado, lovingly grown from seed, 
cradled between her knees...couldn’t leave it 
behind...
 
blew me a kiss,
cupped in her hand, so fragile
so white, as they hit the open road.
 
Me...leaning on the five-bar gate,
dreading the homeward strait...and never
had our garden path seemed that long or that steep, 
nor had I felt so lost and alone.
 
Or loved that infant, child to woman – grown
learned to stand, walk, run, on these same stones...
more wholly, more completely, nor 
had she ever been so very much
not home.
 
Certificate PG
Poem
Silver Spun Sand Poems
Philosophy
Love

Comments

Submitted by VeraClark on

A Russian Doll journey within a journey. Told with such love and bold colour.

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Heartened you thought so, Vera...and that Russian Doll analogy of yours...wonderfully appropriatesmiley

Tina

 

Submitted by Starfish Girl on

Like the contrast between leaving home needs and baby needs and that mum is still there to provide both. Both ends of the scale a journey.

Like this Tina

Lindy

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thanks, Lindy.  Much appreciated.

Tina

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I like the way you 'throw in' lines like about the difficulties of finding the way out in IKEA (living so far from one, we have found them quite overwhelming on our occasional visits!) and not having time to think about the emptiness that will come until it does, suddenly. Also the glimpses of motherhood of babes and teenagers. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

You always notice those 'little things', Rhiannon, which I find so very rewarding.  Many thanks to you.

Tina

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

It is so strange to be left behind, looking at the space they grew in.  Loved the avacado and its resonance particularly.

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thanks, Philip.  Strange, indeed.

Tina