Retrospective

 

A faded old book with a baby blue stained cover,

the color for a wished for boy, who would not be me.

 

Inside, a picture of my mother, father, sister and me;

October 18, 1949, is the date written in my mother’s hand.

 

Daddy in his uniform, is smiling and proud,

a sharp-looking military man with laughing green eyes.

 

Beneath his cap is dark, curly red hair, that I would later inherit,

but not until I was nearly two.

 

Mother wears a dark suit, probably blue.

Her dark hair is styled in the elegance of the late forties.

 

Her eyes look dark;

I know they are robin’s egg blue.

 

Big sister sits on daddy’s knee, mommy’s holding me-

two days shy of three months old.

 

Perfect picture of a family headed on adventures far across the globe;

we were well on the way to being a perfect Catholic family.

 

Not here are another girl, and the thrice wished for brother;

many years after came yet, another sister.

 

The look in Mother and Daddy’s eyes speaks contentment

My sister looks cheery. I look bald, gaseous, maybe a touch rebellious, which would come later.

 

Until I was 7 months in her womb,

her doctors tried to convince Mother she had a tumor.

 

No one knew then that many years later she would have one,

and so would I.

 

© 2016  Nancilynn Saylor

Family photo