Conquering Words
For D.K Shepard’s Keep it 100 challenge
You learned to devour words as a baby
Chewing cardboard pages in your crib
Digesting your first one hundred words
What was the first one you spit out?
Ball
Mama
Binkie
Later, I remember an inappropriate fox
Scampering between erupting canines
So many words since
Spilling out at a hundred miles an hour
Tantrums of irrepressible love
Babbling rivers over stymied desires
I still remember your fourth word,
Maybe your seventh
A word with as many inflections
As you have emotions
No matter the meaning of the moment
You named me
Like an ancient conqueror
Staking your claim
The victor
Re-writing my history
Until all the moments before you
Planted your flag
Are just footnotes in a dusty book
About the Creator
Sean A.
A happy guy that tends to write a little cynically. Just my way of dealing with the world outside my joyous little bubble.
Comments (9)
How did I miss this? Loved your poem.
This one really hits the spot, especially the first two lines "You learned to devour words as a baby/ Chewing cardboard pages in your crib" and the last "Until all the moments before you/Planted your flag/Are just footnotes in a dusty book"
This is a beautiful piece, Shaun. The way you played with words as well as framed the heart of this piece around them is just so well done. Well deserved win, as well! Congratulations!
Congrats on your well deserved placing in the challenge… 💛 this is such a heartwarming poem!✅
Very sweet and entertaining… once they reach a certain age it’s too hard to keep track of their vocab list😳🫣.
Beautiful 🥲
Superb!
Oh, Shaun! This is so beautiful! The pieces you write about your daughter always bring tears to my eyes and this one has hit me the hardest! How precious are a child's first words and it's incredible the way the whole world gets reoriented with their arrival! I've reread it three times and I'm going back for a fourth.
Wow! That was great. So many choice lines. Best of luck in the challenge, Shaun!