Driving up the hill
through the village
a ten second drama
plays out to my right
– a baby boy
comfortable in the crook
of his grandmother’s arm
receives a hurried kiss
from his mother
as she turns to walk down
the hill to the bus stop
the baby stretches out his arm
towards his departing mother
once more going to work
more bewildered than upset
but his grandmother
steps back indoors
before possible tears
leaving the pavement empty…
© Andrew Wilson, 2024
Over at the dVerse Poets Pub, dorahak is hosting Poetics and invites us to write about Liminal spaces using one of the following senses of the phrase.
In general, a liminal space can be looked at in three ways:
1) as an empty structural space (an overgrown, ruined fairground, shuttered department store once familiar like K-Marts here in the U.S., an abandoned shopping center or mall, a silent nighttime hotel corridor); OR
2) as a place of transit (a hotel lobby, an airport terminal, or a parking garage, gas/petrol station or a city street at night); OR
3) a passage in a more abstract sense, e.g., New Year’s Eve, a decade’s close, a birthday, anniversary, or holi(holy)day.
A little drama, so tenderly described, I wonder if it was harder than on the mother than the baby though.
Yes, I think it was Björn…
you defined the liminal so clearly and then found a space for a small everyday drama so well told
Thank you so much, Laura…
Tender moments….small the drama may be for the reader..but not for the little un.
Thank you Ain…
Ten seconds for that space to be traversed, and a departure and a threshold to be crossed. An aperçu fraught with meaning for the watcher and the watched. I love the layering of imagery, not least of all the traveler driving through, sharing the moment in empathy, wonderfully conveyed to us.
Thank you Dora, I couldn’t resist your prompt…
A beautiful touch of liminal sentiment, Andrew. I like how you draw us in with feelings surrounding the events at hand.
Thanks, Dwight, I will be over to yours soon…
A lovely poem that illustrates the dilemma of working moms, you provided the perfect caregiver for this wee tot. Every mother and child should be as fortunate.
Giving you a standing “O” ….
Thank you so much Helen (takes a bow) ☺️
I can relate to that scene, which is replayed in the mind of the working mom. I am sure it is also difficult for the mom as well as the child.
Yes, Grace, I may yet add a couple of lines to that effect, thank you…
A haunting memory of childhood remembered by this fragment is the liminal space here, a room returned to all one’s latter life for reveries like this. Every poem welled from one’s history frames this way, for me anyway. Nicely carved and precisely, lightly said.
Thank you David – it was a scene I saw in a nearby village at going to work time, but the drama is eternal…
A tender and empathetic recounting of the scene you witnessed. I imagine the child forgot–and hopefully had a grand time with the grandmother. I’m sure the mother did not though.
I’m sure you’re right Merril…
This is lovely and so very relatable. Leaving my babies just about broke my heart.
Yes, Robbie, it seem to have hit that chord with a lot of people…
A moment in life captured so tenderly. So beautifully done.