.
Beauty at the Waterslide
She stood at the top of the waterslide,
Bikini, new curves, wavy hair;
Surrounded by boys in their swimmers,
Unsure as to why they were there.
Moved by some insistent attraction,
They’d never quite noticed before;
They circled hypnotic and spellbound,
By her new magnetic allure.
Gone past are her days in the playground,
Her skipping with undisguised glee,
And soon she’ll be bringing her boyfriends,
Back home to meet my wife and me.
Time flies, beauty blossoms and ripens,
And then with a toss of her head,
Her childhood is left long behind her,
There stands a grown beauty instead.
.
.
Originally from England, Clive Boddy is a Yorkshireman currently living in Perth, Western Australia. He is a semi-retired academic and has held professorships in Leadership and Management. His numerous publications include two books on the effects of corporate psychopaths on employees, organizations and society; and a single book of poems called Poems of Love and Location.
I appreciate how you described the coming of age. You could have easily gone with the poetry of pathos. Instead, you rightly chose just a hint of it. She was unsure. Gone was her undisguised glee. And the playground was a memory.
Yep! That struck a chord, Clive.
Thanks for the read.
Nice!
What a beautiful poem about your daughter…her coming of age and its wonder.
Clive, a lovely observational piece that rolls along like a great country song. Great stuff fellow Englander.
Clive, I really enjoyed reading your waterslide watershed moment. In the concluding stanza, “with a toss of her head” so clearly signals her new found maturity.
Thanks for the encouraging comments. As a management academic I feel more than a bit out of my depth in attempting to write a bit of non-business literature.
The dramatic instant one realizes one’s child is no longer a child is captured wonderfully in this lovely poem, Clive (I like the tease of the title). The fleeting years of childhood are just that… fleeting. All parents should revel in every brief and beautiful moment. Thank you for the sweet and stark poetic reminder.
I enjoyed the journey of a person’s evolving and growing from one stage to another, that the poem takes us on. The imagery is vivid and so simple and relatable and I love how the last 2 stanzas are speckled with a parent’s wistfulness at the quick time travel. It’s amazing how time and journey are so beautifully depicted