Ugly Sister

[ray miller]

It’s your last day in Year One
and we’ve forgotten teacher’s present.
We can give it her tomorrow
you scream and for the 18th time this morning
I say the holidays have come, but
holidays from school are not
like holidays from home
and you’ll still wake at 6 o’clock
to ask us if we’re there yet.
You can’t come to my party
has entered the family’s comedy canon.
Oh, the times I’ve been uninvited
on occasions such as this one
when your reason is confounded or you slyly
wipe your snotty nose across my coat.
That woman in the wheelchair
who chats to the Lollipop Lady
says you’ve always a lovely smile.
I don’t see that from up here
where the angle is so obtuse
and I’m only just getting used
to your role as The Ugly Sister,
trying to squeeze her toes
into the shoes of Cinderella.
You’re a 6- year old bag lady
whose favourite word is bollocks,
who’ll forever be mouth organ
to her sister’s full ensemble.
John the Baptist and Madonna
left you hanging in the basket.
The Egyptians have gathered
and are weighing up the tablets,
whispering Melatonin, Ritalin,
a sleepless attention deficit.
We’ll never know just how much gin
your mother bathed your foetus in,
but they can measure
your circumferences,
count your chromosomes,
pull you here, pinch you there and consider
the smoothness of your philtrum.
They’ll say they’ve found a planet
in some far off constellation
or a coin that’s been withdrawn from circulation.
Either way there’s no easy future placement.
Some Solomon will come along
and say cut them into pieces,
like Siamese twins or the cake
you’re not for sharing with your sister
who’ll be whisked away one midnight
in a carriage bound for the opposite direction.
In the long run you won’t see each other often.
In the long run you might learn to write
a Christmas Card, a party invitation.

[jisbell00]

Hi Ray,

Interesting title and topic. I like how the perspective of adulthood opens out from the child, and the great line about the sisters not seeing each other often.

It's a bit long, though, isn't it?

Cheers,
John

[Macavity]

No doubt a tough job being a carer Ray. No fairytale for some. Perhaps the birthday party rejection was a kind of empowerment feel for the child. Acceptance, or not, seems a feature of your writes. And perhaps 'tablets' for behaviours help, though you know about the consequences of that more than I do.

Phil

[ray miller]

Hi Ray,

Interesting title and topic. I like how the perspective of adulthood opens out from the child, and the great line about the sisters not seeing each other often.

It's a bit long, though, isn't it?

Cheers,
John

Ha! Yes, it's very long and also one great slab, which makes it even worse.
There was no fairytale ending to this. We ended up adopting the girls but "Ugly Sister" took herself off to live with her birth family once she'd reached a certain age.

[jisbell00]

I worked in a mental health clinic for five years. A wide variety of people facing hard times, as in your poem.

Cheers,
John

[David]

I think it's brilliant. And not too long. (It is a bit of a slab at present, though.)

I love your poems in this vein.

Cheers

David

[Morpheus]

It's a very sad poem Ray. I recall you writing about a child with ADHD in the past, are we talking about the same child? The poem I remember was quite caring and loving whereas this one is looking back at relationship breakdown from one perspective with 20/20 vision and it is ugly.

I don't know where you stand on publishing this kind of thing, does it make you feel any better for it to be out on view in public? I suspect not but you have my full sympathy and it's a powerful write.

[Ryder]

I found the sheer amount of conversational information difficult to absorb

I did like these lines though-

They’ll say they’ve found a planet
in some far off constellation
or a coin that’s been withdrawn from circulation.

Those are quite brilliant.

[ray miller]

Thanks for all the comments.

It's a very sad poem Ray. I recall you writing about a child with ADHD in the past, are we talking about the same child? The poem I remember was quite caring and loving whereas this one is looking back at relationship breakdown from one perspective with 20/20 vision and it is ugly.

I don't know where you stand on publishing this kind of thing, does it make you feel any better for it to be out on view in public? I suspect not but you have my full sympathy and it's a powerful write.

It was actually written about ten years ago, I've tried to improve it, as is my habit. Yes, same child. If anymember of my family showed the slightest interest in my poems then I wouldn't try publishing a poem like this. But, happily, they don't.

[ton321]

Engaging read, loved the lines

They’ll say they’ve found a planet
in some far off constellation
or a coin that’s been withdrawn from circulation.

you circumambulated with grace around a difficult subject

I totally feel your pain about no one giving a monkeys about "poetry" . What seems important to us, is dismissed as irrelevant to most people.

Tony

[ray miller]

Thanks, Tony. I'm quite happy that my family shows no interest in poetry. I have this vision of my children reading my poems when I die and a collective raising of eyebrows. We never really knew him, they'll say.

[jisbell00]

When Wallace Stevens died, all these hippies showed up for his funeral, and apparently the insurance executives he had worked with for years turned to each other and said "Did you know Wallace wrote poetry?" At least, that's the legend.

Cheers,
John