“If you fall
off that wall
& break both
your legs
...don’t come
running to me! ”
Could never understand
my Mam’s mind
& how it
worked.
One moment
she 'had half a mind
to come up there
&' get me off that wall.
Then she 'was in two minds
about' whether to tell me to stop.
“Go ahead...go ahead
& kill yourself
...see if I care! ”
“I’m warning you child
if you fall off that wall
& kill
yourself
I’ll personally
come up there
& kill ya myself
so I will! ”
I used to watch the words
climbing out of her mouth
& fly around the room
looking for a place to land
in my mind.
Never cared
whether she gave out.
I just loved
everything she said
the music of her
& how
she made the words
behave.
I came down
and kissed her
kissed her worry away.
'I'm sorry Mam'
I told her.
And she cried.
Oh, this is beautyful Donall! The way the poem starts - quoting your funny mother's expression about the broken legs running and then this music of her words... So, your obsession with words starts here somewhere... Beautiful poem! I am so glad I found it... 'I used to watch the words climbing out of her mouth & fly around the room looking for a place to land in my mind.'
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I'm sure my mother used those same expressions about different things, girlie things to do with me but probably those same words about my brother and I'm sure they both, your mam and mine, got those words from their mother's in turn.....and the words are said with love and it's the love that makes you and I both cry........because they loved us so much... Ruthie