Nicknames for Aislinn

By Mark Heathcote

Thu, 22 Jul 2010
  • 2004 reads
4 comments
 

She was born a bald little lassie
Long and thin and ever so pretty
6 lbs and 8 oz if memory serves me well
She was slender and strong as gazelle.

She’d the yellow ochre of barley, Jaundice
Sat on my lap eyes so wondrous
She’d match with grace all those wild cowslips
I'd laugh! “I'd nicknamed her chips”

Because of the jaundice, but after
When; she finally came home with her mother.
I changed the name to “clothes peg”
As was right; even if bowleg...

She’d lie in the little red washing basket
Just if it were her Moses basket
Clothes peg suck, it was only proper
As we hung her out to quietly jabber.

Certificate U
Poem
The kismet fate of serendipity
Children's

Comments

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on
hi Mark, this is a lovely tender poem. I especially like the idiosyncratic detail -it's not full of the usual things you say about babies. Thank you for posting it

 

Submitted by markbrown on
I like this too, as the sentiment, the use of language and the unusual detail are spot on. But the scansion is, frankly, ugly. Read it out loud and you'll hear that it clunks all over the place. And the use of 'But after When' is just horrible. This poem has all the makings of something truly excellent but it does need a lot more work.

 

Submitted by trickymac on
I can see the baby being brought home and the images are spot on. I think you have forced the language into the structure rather than just allowing it to say what it needs to. Keep working on it - it's definitely worth it.

Submitted by Mark Heathcote on
This is in its first draft and was written as a bit of fun for a challenge poem at; The Starlite cafe. Which it duly won... http://www.thestarlitecafe.com/poems/105/poem_91159824.html I agree with all your comments and thank you for sharing your thoughts and will consider some more revision. Many thanks.

Mark Heathcote