When I become a little girl
I will have no shame.
I will show my knickers
to the boys.
They will laugh
without quite knowing why.
They will know that knickers
are rude
and shameful
without quite knowing why.
Childhood is a time of
not quite knowing why.
I will show a boy mine
and he will show me his.
He will be disappointed
that I am not hiding sweets
or tanks or machine guns.
I will wonder how he manages
to pull up his pants
with all that surplus material
to accommodate.
(I will have a good
vocabulary for my age,
and better than average
sentence construction.)
He will wonder
how I manage to pee
without the necessary equipment.
I will tell him that
girls pee through their noses
and he will believe me.
I will have an honest face.
We will know we have done
something wrong
and shameful
without quite knowing why.
Childhood is a time of
not quite knowing why.
Later, as a mother, I will warn
my young daughter about
showing her knickers
and her lack of danglers
to the boys.
I will know that knickers
and parts
are rude
and shameful
without quite knowing why.
Life is a time of
not quite knowing why.

Comments
chuck | November 28, 2008 - 13:17
Excellent Stefano. There is definitely something about knickers. I can't quite put my finger on it. Well OK sometimes I can but you know what I mean.
Bradene | November 28, 2008 - 13:19
This is great. This is timeless. Smashing poem Val
Ewan | November 28, 2008 - 19:16
At last Stefano, a poem of yours I sort of understand... I just can't put my finger on why.
Macjoyce | November 28, 2008 - 22:49
I've never met a girl who pisses out of her nose, but I've met plenty who shit out of their mouth.
Good poem.
www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant
Silver Spun Sand | November 28, 2008 - 23:46
I can only say 'ditto' to what has already been said - with knobs on:-)
Brilliant poem.
Tina
jennifer | November 29, 2008 - 10:30
These lines are hilarious:
'I will tell him that
girls pee through their noses
and he will believe me.'
Although I feel you repeat the 'not quite knowing why' a little too often.
And Macjoyce - I find that comment offensive and not remotely funny. Bitter and jaded so publicly is rather sad.
Stefano | November 29, 2008 - 12:32
Thank you all for your kind comments. This poem is dedicated to Susan Hillsden who once showed me hers in her garage. Thank you Susan for one of life's uncelebrated rites of passage!
Jennifer - I think you're right about the repetition. I must remember to read my work before posting... Oh, and don't worry about Macjoyce - the loutish comments hide a sensitive soul.
littleditty | November 29, 2008 - 20:18
soooper, gentle humour, making a good point, 'without quite knowing why' is a repeating reappearing notion best acknowledged every now and then in a funny old life - less likely to become an arrogant nasty piece of work, if one doesn't lose a childlike wondering and curiosity which comes across well in your poem, witty ditty, especially enjoyed
I will wonder how he manages
to pull up his pants
with all that surplus material
to accommodate.
(I will have a good
vocabulary for my age,
and better than average
sentence construction.)
good smiles, cheers.
Macjoyce | November 30, 2008 - 01:06
Jennifer - you are obviously a middle class liberal with no sense of humour, so you can automatically fuck off.
www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant
Macjoyce | November 30, 2008 - 01:14
PS No, I'm not sensitive in the slightest. I'd like to see the entire middle class lined up and shot.
www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant
chuck | November 30, 2008 - 11:55
Well I don't know about that Macjoyce. I'd suggest you show a certain sensitivity to the poor downtrodden working class. Or is the upper class you represent?
Macjoyce | November 30, 2008 - 21:22
Well, my class loyalties are stronger than any other loyalties I have, yes, and I will defend the working class to my last breath from the attacks of stuck-up, self-righteous, cold-hearted, unempathic, arrogant, narrow-minded, prissy, bourgeois twats.
But I have to admit there are a lot of working class people I hate too, usually ignorant chavs. I think I hate most of humanity.
www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant
chuck | November 30, 2008 - 22:18
You think the British working class can't be arrogant, bourgeois twats? Pop down to the Costa del Sol sometime mate...you'll love it.
FTSE100 | November 30, 2008 - 22:24
I agree that the world is full of bad people, that they conveniently come together in recognisable groups, and that the world would be improved by elimination of such groups. But aren't we after the wrong people here? Isn't it niggers and Jews we should dispose of?
chuck | November 30, 2008 - 22:29
Here watch it FTSE. Some of my best friends are niggers and Jews.
FTSE100 | November 30, 2008 - 22:43
The holocaust taught us that Nazis shouldn't be rotten to Jews, but it had nothing to say about Macjoyces and middle classes. That's entirely different. Isn't it?
chuck | November 30, 2008 - 22:46
Well yes and no. That's the trouble with these narrow definitions I find. Nobody seems to fit the mold. Maybe we're all middle class since New Labour got in.
Stefano | November 30, 2008 - 22:47
Watch it FTSE. Some of my best friends are Macjoyces and middle classes.
I know Macjoyce is a sensitive soul, I've seen him weeping inconsolably over a flower with a broken petal. Just let him deny it.
FTSE100 | November 30, 2008 - 22:55
You some kind of Macjoyce-lover, then? I've got some good stuff to throw at you.
If somebody has an education you have to wonder why they're digging or carrying or hammering for a living. But maybe Macjoyce has some definition of 'working class' that bypasses the actual work?
Macjoyce | December 2, 2008 - 10:24
Not everyone who goes to university wants a career. My job does involve a fair amount of carrying. It's not a problem for me. Also, 'working class' involves your upbringing and how this has shaped you into the person you are.
At university I was open-minded towards middle-class people and befriended many of them. I'm not friends with them anymore, because too many of them are like Jennifer.
There are probably a few middle class people around who are human, but in my experience most of them are just cunts.
www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant
blackjack-davey | December 2, 2008 - 16:46
This must be Cunts Corner, a weird little ABC petting zoo where all the mangy, yapping animals lick each others genitals. Over there's Macjoyce -- an aggro-cunt, short with a high-pitched voice bragging about his UEA mates -- and there stroking his buzz-cut is Stefano a sycophantic, half-literate cunt who thinks poetry involves:
I am Stefano
I am most probably a poet
Who uses line breaks to make
Banal prose look important
I will most probably do a wee wee out of my nose
Not knowing why my poetry
Will ever be published
FTSE100 | December 2, 2008 - 18:48
Are you sure it's the middle classes who are cunts and not just people in general? If you want to go after the cunt classes I'm with you all the way. But how do you identify them except on a one-by-one basis? In my experience there's an identical proportion of cunts in any class or group you like to name, and an identical proportion of decent people. (Not 'decent' in the Daily Mail sense, but in the non-cunt sense.)
Ewan | December 5, 2008 - 12:09
Cunts' Corner? Well, I'm sure I qualify to be posting here. From your tone, BJD, it would seem you feel you do not, and yet here you are! Who'da thunk it?
Stefano | December 6, 2008 - 16:36
BJD is just a little boy, Ewan. One feels he will have a hard enough life already without setting Macjoyce on him.