Tuesday Poem - oh yes by Jennifer Compton

oh yes

alexandra has a lot on her plate oh yes

she is scoffing up & chewing hard on

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& the unexpected but very welcome baby oh yes

i mopped her kitchen floor while nicholas slept

she tinkered with a story

using one finger & one side of her brain

i scrubbed the stove top oh yes

she tapped

i scoured

we spoke

like guys at a work bench bent to it not seeking eye contact

at 6 am we had checked out the news nicholas on her tit

& the news was very hideous

but not quite critical mass yet oh yes not meltdown yet

no one would invite a child into this big raw mess

but if they insist

if they take their chance & muscle in it's on their heads good luck

so on to the chiropractor in berwick for our bad backs

i needed x-rays so alexandra ran me round to radiology

nicholas threw a jaunty arm across his nana's knee

& stood on his own feet which is his new trick

just look at me

oh yes

elderly girl fans on the far side of the waiting room exulted

their palms clasped together with an oh oh yes

then a polish woman with a fuckyou face said to my nakedness

hold still plis

I am giving this poem an airing as a page poem because it was recently aired as
an audio file as part of the latest issue of Going Down Swinging. I think you can
access it on the link below if you want to hear what it sounds like.

http://goingdownswinging.org.au/albums/35.html