Ward 3D
Commended in the Mother's Milk Writing Prize 2015. Judge's comments:
What a rare joy it is to see understatement used as it is in ‘Ward 3D’. This is also an example of ‘showing not telling’, too, and all the more powerful for that. We are never told that the child had a difficult relationship with his/her parent, that the parent is dying or that the child (now grown up) is struggling to say, ‘I love you’, but it’s all there. The ‘tiny words… ...tissue-thin and chalk for bones’ may be whispered — and the pain and fragility of difficult family relationships is beautifully conveyed.
Cynthia Buell Thomas
Sat 30th Aug 2014 11:59
Renown is yours. It has to be. Your rocket is flying - and deservedly so. It's the phony high-fliers who get my ass. Whatever the idiom, it isn't brains and content that launches them.
I like that this poem could be directed to anyone in your life, even yourself. Perhaps to a mother? That works most for me.