Max Haha nothing like a bit of 'puerile kitsch.'(bowl not poem!!)
tum-te-tum-te-tum cheers P
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 11 December 2013 07:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 'The Infant's Bowl'
The Infant's Bowl
To the hinged tray on my high chair
Mother brought my very own bowl
and my very own spoon.
Warm butter glowed melting
into' the mashed potato mixed
with parsnip or carrot.
Bib in place, I practiced the art
of spooning and mouth filling.
One reward of eating it all up
was praise, the other was
seeing the picture revealed:
a fairy tale house, at its door
a child like me, welcoming
his guests The Fairies.
I learned the printed rhyme:
'If the fairies came to tea,
how very jolly that would be -
They'd say Hello, I'd say Come in,
and then the fun would all begin.'
Later, I was told about my
infant speech: 'would all de-din'.
Later, I saw how Fairies were a con.
Later, I saw the artwork
was puerile kitsch.
From a lost England,
what's more, doubly false
to my New Zealand.
Later, I noted my spoon (lost)
had worn and worn away
the bowl's decorations.
For safe keeping,
it went to a high shelf
at the back of my mind.
It waited for another infant.
Rhyme still entranced,
the tum-te-tum-te-tum
iambic rhythm sang me. =
