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Katherine Gallagher: I could have been born in a taxi

Katherine Gallagher

May 01 2016

1 mins

I could have been born in a taxi

 

speeding in at the last minute

through Maldon’s volcanic hills,

chasing history and voices—

so much gone like the gold;

and, a mini-volcano-in-waiting: me,

setting the pace as it were—

my mother concentrating,

contractions, such raw minutes …

 

I wasn’t ready yet to be born;

too soon for she and I

to meet face to face, hold

a real conversation,

me with my strange eye

on everything.

 

Hang on, I thought, is this journey

likely to be all it’s cracked up to be—

my mother wanting me to get a move on,

her efforts surely deserving a medal.

Such a busy time for her, she said—real work,

and I, new chum, about to learn the beauty out there

to be settled in the eye of the beholder.

 

Katherine Gallagher

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