Slice of Life - Memoir Poem

 

I love participating in Slice of Life, started by Two Writing Teachers and writing a story, reflection, or musing at least once a week.

 

Thank you Margaret Simon for encouraging us to link up poetry this month using the hashtag #digipoetry.  Also, thank you Leigh Anne Eck for creating a button for us to use.

 

     I said earlier this month that I was going to try out writing some memoir verse around photos or memorabilia since my class is immersed in a FAMILY/HOME unit right now and reading/writing memoirs in various formats (narrative, verse, graphic memoir).  This poem is inspired by a letter that my mom wrote on December 22nd, 1966, four days before I was born (I was due on Christmas day, but appeared a day late).   This letter was the only that I have (she recently gave me a bundle of letters she wrote to my grandparents during my first year) that she wrote before I was born.

 

WAITING

 

Mom about 5 months pregnant with me in 1966

It was only days

until December 25th, 1966,

the day

I was supposed to be born.

Festive lights twinkled                                       

on Baker Avenue,

festooning apartments

in Cincinnati.

I was waited for,

anticipated,

dreamt about.

The nursery

was decorated

with a clown lamp,

and my mother imagined

2:00 am feedings with

its 25 watt bulb,

dim and peaceful.

A scotch pine stood watch                                           

in the balcony window,

and unfallen snow

weighed heavy in the

steel gray clouds,

waiting

for a white Christmas

and a baby

to arrive.