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PIERCED EARS
I hoped you would not pierce your perfect skin.
I thought you were too young to do it, to barter pain
for beauty. I spoke – too late – of mutilation.
It turned out that I loved the sight of them,
the hoops and drops, the shells and cupules hugging
your lobes with the aid of a slim gold pin;
and anyway the punctures were no more than that.
Now you have battle scars and wear them like a hero
under his breastplate. Powerless as Demeter
to protect, I watch you these days as you reach out
for your daughter, for whom you’d barter
anything in life…your beauty, if you were asked.
Diana Bridge
A mother’s love for her daughter and in turn that person’s love for her daughter. The continuity of it all; an age-old poetic theme. Diana sent me this unpublished poem for my interest. I liked it so much I asked her permission to post it on the Tuesday Poem blog. .
The Tuesday Poem website is http://www.tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com
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I like that line 'to barter pain for beauty' - all the lovely alliteration in that stanza, this poem. The sounds of 'hoops and drops'. I like the switch too from thinking of something as mutilation to seeing it as beautiful, and the way the poem suggests so much about the daughter and the mother through all it doesn't say - and the voice of the mother, what she knows. What all mothers know. Thanks Harvey.
ReplyDeleteThe language in the second stanza really sings!
ReplyDelete