It's Still Life

Some Things Just Stick In Your Head

The only time I was allowed to go barefoot
was when I took a bath. Had something to do
with catching worms. Mum wouldn’t allow it.

Doubt I’d have caught worms from trodding
on pavement, but Mum was raised on a farm,
and some stuff just sticks in your head forever.

My mother is forever stuck in my head,
a flower-like remembrance, a sharp tap
on the shoulder. She was like that chipmunk

that used to live in the monkey tree, it had
a wide black stripe that started from its head,
it chattered away its moodiness while

shouting down at me … alert alert alert …
as one of Mum’s black moods poured
over me even though the sky shone blue.

I remember her pushing the lawnmower
through a clump of four-leaf clover,
and I remember how the day melted away.

Some things just stick in your head.

for Poetic Bloomings “Hindsight”   © Misky 2020