'There Goes My Baby' Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

I use to find myself staring at her.
She was so very beautiful,
My mother.

'Boy, why are you staring at me? '

~Ma, you are so pretty! ~

'Okay, what do you want?
I don't have any more money,
For you to buy another 45.'

I use to 'stay' in Roz Records.
It was a music store,
Not far from our apartment in Bellevue Square.
On Canton Street.
In Hartford, Connecticut.

I remember my first 45...
'There Goes My Baby'
By the Drifters!
I would play it 'all' the time.

~Ma, you so pretty! ~

'Boy, you better get out of my face.
And go play with the other kids in the playground.'

I did it!
Like a chore.
Children bored me back then!
They were so...'childish'.
And I was born a grown man.
I was!
But that's a different story.

I think most boys become infatuated,
With their mothers first.
Giving wives competition they did not expect.
And most men who had been mama's boys...
Usually divorce.
To be left on missions,
To find someone to spoil them!

I know.
I've been married twice.
To do that 'thrice'
Would be absolutely foolish.
'Huh...ma? '


Dedicated:
In loving memory to my mother,
Edna Roberts-Prudhomme Pertillar
'Miss you, ma! '