The Loneliness of a Toddler in a Children’s Corner

Bouncing
like erratic balls
given to a child to hush
his displeasure with his coffee-sipping mother
who left him in the nursery
Where it doesn’t matter
that the place is full of colours,
toys and noise.

Gaping loneliness is bouncing –
millions of coloured balls.

(c) 2018, MK

This weird quadrille was written for d’Verse – Quadrille #48 – Bounce. It was my first quadrille, and I’m not sure I did it correctly. For example, what do you do with “a” or with hyphenated words? The obvious solution – check fellow poets’ approach and adopt it. It was a nice challenge.

Author: soul mary

Writer, poet and reader

7 thoughts on “The Loneliness of a Toddler in a Children’s Corner”

  2. I love the concept of this poem. With the advent of smart phones mothers become even more detached from their kids! Bouncing Loneliness… Very good!
    Dwight

  3. Aww, this makes me so sad! More often than not, though, they love the colors, bouncing balls, and other kids. It’s way more engaging than Mom a lot of the time. (I have worked A LOT of nurseries!) Certainly it depends on the workers, the child, and the age.

  4. Hi, Mary! And welcome! You have Quadrille’d like a pro! There are only two rules: exactly 44 words, and using a form of the word provided. Hyphenated words, as you have observed, count as one (as does the word “a,” like all smallish words.) ?

    I am deeply affected by this piece. The words “left him” are such a crux here. Seems like one of those situations where everything is provided as far as material things, but for some reason true love, attention and affection are rare, or withheld. So sad.

    So glad you joined us for the Quadrille! Hope to see you again (and again and again.) ?

  5. I trauma of my childhood is that I was never left to play in that sea of balls… I would have loved to be left at least for a while.

  6. Very well done and De took care of the answers to your questions. You created the feeling of loneliness and brought back a distant memory. I echo De–come back and join us for more. Tomorrow is Open Link Night where you can post any poem you choose. Hope to see you there.

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