Amy

AMY

The baby was wrinkled –
Yellow skin,
No hair.
I did not want her there
Taking up my Mother’s care.

Her cries in the night
Unplacated
Made me irritated,
Her bottles and soothers
Made poor excuses.

Even before she came
It was the same –
My Mother couldn’t run
Or play –
Not with a baby on the way!

Then came the tantrums
And the screams which
Infiltrated my deepest dreams.
Mother always tired.
Why couldn’t she just be quiet?!

Five years on it never stopped –
“Take your sister
To the shop,
To the park, the pool, the lane”
Things would never be the same.

Her face scrunched up
“Why won’t you play!?”
I’d trade her in
On any day!
But now we’re living worlds away.

Since last July
I have not seen my sister.
Who would have thought
I could have have missed her?
That wrinkly baby, yellow skin, no hair –

I did not want her there
But now I can’t deny I care.



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