I Wish I Could Be Like You!A Poem by David Lewis PagetDeep in the gloom of her bedroom, Young Kathy dried her tears, It wasn’t as bad as the red room She’d been banished to for years, At least up there she could lie and dream And play with her music box, Not hear her parents arguing, Whether they did, or not.
At least up here was her sanctuary Where she could dream all day, Of skipping out in the poppy fields Where all the children play, She’d lie there nursing a broken heart For the loss of her former life, For all had changed in her home, The Grange When he took a second wife.
When her father took a second wife And his face became so grim, It seemed she couldn’t do anything right For the sake of pleasing him, The woman snapped and the woman snarled And she said to call her Ma, But Kathy had kept her lips shut tight That was just one bridge too far.
So she lay and opened the paste-board lid And the dancer, up she leapt, Straightening out her toutou as She tried one pirouette, With one hand up to her forehead and The other fixed and set, The dancer twirled in her private world To a Mozart minuet.
And Kathy thought she was beautiful As she balanced on her toes, A look of grace on her tiny face And the flush of love, it shows, With glitter up in her auburn hair And a spangle on each shoe, The thought had formed as the doll performed, ‘I wish I could be like you!’
‘I wish I could be like you,’ she thought ‘So small, and full of grace, I’d never have to go down again With tears on my face, I’d wait till somebody wound me up Then I’d dance for them with pride,’ And something happened to Kathy then, A change that she felt inside.
For all the while that the dancer twirled To the Mozart minuet, It took in Kathy’s tear-stained face And it seemed somewhat upset, ‘Why should she have this lovely room And a life that I’m denied, I wish I could be like you,’ it thought, And the two thoughts did collide.
There seemed a change in the very air Of that too secluded gloom, When everything with bated breath had Stopped in that fated room, Then Kathy leapt to her feet with joy And a final pirouette, While the dancer smiled as at first she trialled To that Mozart minuet.
The father arrived back home that night To a scene of blood and gore, His wife impaled with a table knife Lay dead on the kitchen floor, While Kathy twirled in the poppy fields In a show of poise and grace, And there in the bedroom, up above There was blood on the dancer’s face.
David Lewis Paget © 2015 David Lewis PagetFeatured Review
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Added on February 23, 2015Last Updated on February 23, 2015 Tags: sanctuary, pirouette, dancer.Mozart Author
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