2nd Prize – Carole Bromley    (read poem)

Taking Your Time
(for Matilda Sakura Mullen b 14th March, 2010)

You didn’t come on Tuesday the 2nd
when the poem on my calendar
was ‘Kites’, or on the 3rd when
it was ‘Flowers’. On the 4th even
Alexander Pope could not tempt you.
By the 5th I was flipping over the sheets
barely reading the words. On the 6th
I didn’t even glance at it, though I find,
turning over a week’s worth, it was
a lovely piece called ‘Scumbling’,
on the 7th something about the human
condition I wouldn’t want to greet you with
and on the 8th, by which time your mother
was in despair and not a twinge
to her name, I failed to read the one
about the elevator operator in Virginia
though it’s lovely and I can almost
hear her repeating third floor- men’s wear,
mezzanine. On the 9th, a week after
your due date, I read them all, ending with
‘Song’ Love laid his sleepless head
on a thorny rosy bed. By then none
of us were sleeping so, on the 10th
‘Bad Blood’ made me cry and next day
I was floating on the Sea of the Hebrides
like Fulva that can’t be reached any more
and thinking of you and how close you are
and also how far away. On the 12th I flicked
over a prose poem about marriage,
my mind being on other things
and now on the 13th here I sit still waiting
for news, reading You, my seedling,
my days, my law. All promise lies with you
and thinking how already your mum and dad
who have yet to set eyes on you but
you’re coming, you’re coming, know that.