Baby and the Failed Poet

a comedy of errors

I asked my son, a few hours after he was born,

What is it like to be unborn?

(I assumed that being unborn is like being

not alive,a bit dead, and that life is like a slice of ham

between two slices of bread. I wanted to get some

advance information in  the unlikely case that I might

not always be alive).

He turned green. He said something that sounded like

doodledoodlegrumpfpoufmurfmurfmurf.

He probably thought.:

What have I done to deserve this ?

Do I really have to be the son of a failed poet ?

Author's Note

I think it is important that I sometimes laugh at myself.
So here you go.

Reviews

[Sel Whiteley]

We must never take ourselves too seriously…

I love the way you look at the fetus and the corpse as being the same: such scientific logic is usually missing from poetry. But more than that, I think this may well be the only poem I have ever read (here or elsewhere) about a newborn baby that is not overly sentimentalized. This made me laugh so much and the characterization was magnificent. I thank you for that!

[Stabitha]

Funny. Thank you.

[seaNobody]

brillant.

[SHEEMA HUQ]

Great, a slightly unconvincing self-deprication at the very end though.....

[paradoxical]

Hahaha! Thanks for making me smile. As always, a great poem.

[Southern Cross]

Liked the ironic tones in this and the humor that made me smile..very cute, concise piece

[Morrigan Nicole]

Gah! Nice poem but, you are definitely not a failure! Cute as hell, though!

[Henry]

Being- and not being, the dead- and the unborn, offered in the c**k and bull humour of tristram shandy. Brilliant.

[Rosalind Gale]

Dear Leslie, this poem made me think of if I was right in not wanting children. And then I recalled a play I saw in London once about 'Life is a bowl of cherries' or something. Then I read the poem again and thought, 'how marvelous that all these things can go through ones head on reading a poem! I did laugh too, like other reviewers have mentioned, it brings a smile, then a laugh or two. Thank you!
Rosa -x-