Pacing

Waiting RoomHospital waiting rooms are the absolute worst. The chairs are dreadfully uncomfortable. The vending machine food inedible. The droning of the television cannot drown out the silence from the nurse’s station. What are you supposed to do?

You cannot get comfortable. Even if you could, you cannot go to sleep. You still do not know. You could stare at the screen, but you still would not understand or remember from one scene to the next. You are just too preoccupied.

You have flipped through that two year old magazine for the third time. You still have no idea what it is about. You close the cover, only to discover it is about the benefits of podiatry. How did that get here? Better still, why did you pick it up?

Let’s walk down the hall and see if we can find anything out from the nurses who just came on shift. They are giggling amongst themselves. Maybe, the last shift will not have passed on the prohibition to letting you know anything.

Nurses' Station

No one told me anything.

Pacing

You are there behind the glass.
Your lips mouth I love you.
Fingers release your blown kiss.
They wheel you behind heavy doors.

I want to go with you,
Afraid there’s something I’ll miss.
One fifty nine, one sixty
One sixty one, one sixty two.

I’ve paced back and forth until
The carpet shines in my wake.
The ticking clock–no comfort.
Dark clouds shroud the sealed window.

Impatiently waiting for daybreak.
Composing a pithy retort
For the news I direly fear,
True source of deep heartache.

The doors vomit your doctor
Swathed in green head-to-toe.
What is that look she wears?
Revealed in dropping her mask.

For a moment, we just didn’t know,
   But you can relax all your fears.
You won’t need the football, sir.
   Unless you tie a pink bow.

010320120038
(c) Ann Marie Dwyer

Pink NFL Helmet

Down Set Hike

~~~~~~~~~~

What pre-birth gift did you buy no matter if it was to be a boy or a girl? Who believes in the sexism of toys? Do boys play with dolls and girls play with guns?


(c) Ann Marie Dwyer
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14 Comments

  1. There is much gender profiling these days!

    My God daughter is a drummer and liked to climb trees when she wasn’t protecting her friends by beating up the bullies – teaching them to keep the hell away!

    Today she is a mum with three kids and her own business, her husband is a hard worker and they have all the good things in life – and she’s never owned a pink ribbon in her life!!! 🙂

    Emily on the other hand was very smart, but totally lazy.

    She could have had a degree with honours when she was in University, but I had to drag her ass out of the fire and she only got a 2/2.

    She was a primary school teacher until she got pregnant and is now a mother of two and a housewife.

    Happy?

    You Bet!!! 🙂

    Love and hugs!

    Prenin.

    Reply
    • Red

       /  March 11, 2012

      I have never subscribed to girl this and boy that. My babies wore blanket sleepers in whichever color was in the pack…blue or pink. My daughters are tough and my sons cook. For me, it is about teaching them self-sufficiency.
      {HUGZ}
      Red.

      Reply
  2. authormjlogan

     /  March 11, 2012

    I cook (I am the house cook-the kitchen is my turf.). I can fix my pants if they tear. I do my own laundry. I refuse to wear pink. Or taupe. I like blues, reds, grays and blacks. Rarely brown. Sometimes green, but not so often. Cotton or wool flannel are favorite clothes and preferably in some sort of plaid pattern. Please leave the pumpkin colored t-shirt on the rack next to the melon one, thank you.

    I remember at about age three, dad was playing with me and I threw the tiny football to him. He jumped up and ran to the kitchen hollering – Mary! Mary! he just threw a perfect spiral!!! I just wanted the ball back, why did he run away with it?

    I was present at a birth once. I helped. A little. She did the work and it was work. We were alone and it was scary. I was not prepared–she was a friend. No one ever mentions afterbirth… “OH MY GOD SHE’S DYING!” was my reaction. But the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in the world was that first breath and the explosion of pink across his skin… yes a he and it was unimportant to me or her that he was a he. He could have been a she and I would still have been just as awed and she would have been just as proud.

    Reply
    • Red

       /  March 11, 2012

      *Grins* No, no one tells you about afterbirth. It is an amazing color for the first few minutes. ROFL! I cannot believe you said….taupe. What a totally non-guy color to be able to identify! After all your woodsy adventures, I can see you in a plaid flannel shirt. *giggles*

      Reply
  3. Paint the nursery yellow, it’s a much nicer color for a cheerful room. Just buy yellow stuff. I wonder who came up with this pink and blue crap in the first place?

    John

    Reply
    • Red

       /  March 11, 2012

      I would like to kick whoever it was. Just nuts. My babies had amazing blue eyes which looked even bluer in blue clothes. I cannot tell you how many widgets in the grocery came up to my daughter in her blue (lacy, frilly dress) and said, “Oh, what a handsome fella.” Ugh.
      Red.

      Reply
  4. My boys don’t play with dolls now, but who knows– I have a daughter now, so I don’t see it as out of the question. At the same time, I would expect my daughter to pick up many of the things the boys are doing. That is just the way it will probably play out in my home. I do not believe we need to force boys to play with girl toys or vice versa. I think it is amazing how boys make guns out of everything. We don’t even have any guns in our house and my boys make their own. Each one is unique, that’s for sure.

    Reply
    • Red

       /  March 13, 2012

      I think the point I am trying to make is how inane it is we even classify toys as boy and girl. Glad I never listened to any of that malarkey as a child or as a parent. And trust me, they boys will.

      Reply
  5. (Where have you been?)

    Great, timely post for me – where i live (right on the US/Canada border) there is a constant waiting time of 10 to 18 hours in the hospital’s ER. I have seen people with broken bones, bleeding cuts, howling babies, you name it, waiting for hours on end – I left the hospital and went back 12 hours later, and was still 20 numbers away from being seen (whenever an ambulance show up the waiting time is increased by at least a half hour)

    Reply
  6. Great poem! I don’t think we should stereotype boys for one type of toy and girls for another. These are classifications and groupings that come with expectations. I say put a variety of toys in front of the children and let them choose. Choice is the spice of life (or at least one of them!)

    Reply
    • Red

       /  March 13, 2012

      Very excellent point of view, Christy. Children do much better when you let them decide. It stimulates far better creativity and secondary problem-solving skills.

      Reply
  7. I like your posting Red and of course your fine poem to go with it… It is really crazy how a baby is tagged straight from the womb as it were, blue for boys and pink for girls, how nuts is that?

    I quite like the idea from John regarding painting the nursery yellow as it seems to be the best way to hedge around the norm…

    As for whether boys play with dolls and girls, guns well I think that they have always done that, but in modern times they are stereotyped even more as a result, so it is a pretty mixed up world don’t you think? 🙂

    Have a wickedly enjoyable rest of evening Red and do let me know if you can still get into my Space as I have gone Private in order to try and catch up with everyone 🙂

    Androgoth XXx

    Reply
    • Red

       /  March 13, 2012

      I am headed over to check it out in just a moment. I am wretchedly behind after taking off yesterday. I have been reading along from my tele, but it does not let you know I have been lurking.
      Red.

      Reply

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