It's Still Life

The less you talk, the more you’re listened to ~ Pauline Phillips

I Feel Sunshine – (reading time: 00:58:57)

I was born after Mum ate an abundance of chilli, and then took a walk on the sand dunes. That’s when all the wailing began. Not Mum, the doc knocked her out cold, back then natural birth was a distraction to everyone involved. It was me, little girl, black hair thick as a rug. Oh my god, said the nurse, or so I’m told, she has a full head of hair. They tied a pink bow in it. Took a photo. And as soon as I could sit upright, I was taught to shut up. Sit up and shut up. Mum was so proud that I was once mistaken for a doll sitting on the sofa. Me, listening, listening behind my invisible fence. Me, the first born, the source of all my mother’s tales, me listening, listening, even as an ageing woman – old – that’s such a finicky definition, keeping my mouth shut, and listening. As for Pauline Phillips, I’d say, Unless you speak, you’ll lose your voice.

Some feel the rain
Some feel the rivers shift
I feel sunshine

Written for Writers Digest, PA, an abundance poem, and Glo/NaPoWriMo Day 7 Argue against, or somehow question, a proverb or saying. Image: 1913 Feb. 10 Photograph shows suffragists Rose Sanderman (holding horn) and Elizabeth Freeman (right). (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2008 and 2010. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress). Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print. ©Misky 2022 Shared with #amwriting #glopowrimo #napowrimo on Twitter