KERRIN P. SHARPE

 

To Save Nurse’s Time Enter the Age of Baby in Weeks

 
the baby wants a nest 
not a bassinette 
 
she wants to ride the wind 
in a tree not a pram 
 
she wants to be wrapped 
in air not muslin 
 
she wants the moon 
1947 her mother 
opens the door 
to the plunket nurse 
 
all morning she has worried 
whether to serve tea 
 
in the cup with a 
painted swallow that is a kite 
 
or the one with winter forest 
and no deer 
 
Nurse Beverley suspects 
dawdling after bathing 
 
she believes spoiling 
has led to irregularity of habits 
 
‘baby will need to be 
held out more often’ she writes 
 
and quaffs the tea 
and does not notice 
 
the cup is a nest 
or the baby in it 
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kerrin P Sharpe completed the 1976 Original Composition Course at Victoria University. She is a teacher of creative writing. In April 2007 she began work again on her own writing and has recently been published in The Press, Takahe, and Snorkel 5 & 6.

 

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