Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Minute(s) (as in time) (03/03/11)
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TITLE: Regret | Previous Challenge Entry
By Verna Cole Mitchell
03/06/11 -
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A sliver of time,
Was all it took
For Little Paul,
Two-year-old cherub—
Joy of his mom and dad,
To climb a chair
And grab the plate of butter
From the table
In the dining room,
And with butter knife
In chubby fist,
To paint wide sweeps
Of yellow
Wherever he could reach
To color flowers on wallpaper
In the family’s new home.
Just a minute
Till his mother found him,
Sitting on the floor,
Evidence of his artistry
All around him.
She scolded him
With sharp voice
And stinging words.
He understood the tone,
If not everything she said,
And his tears fell,
Making greasy circles
On the butter plate.
Just a minute,
Merely sixty seconds,
That’s all
Little Paul needed
To find,
Hidden in a corner,
A rusty safety pin
That he would swallow,
Which would become
A poison in his body,
Its presence discovered
By doctors—
Too late.
Just a minute
The baby boy was breathing,
And in the next,
He was at play
Among the angels.
His mother wished
Through the many years
Of her long life
That she could take back
That minute,
When she had
Scolded Little Paul
So harshly.
If only she could grasp again
That brief fragment of time,
She would happily
Let him daub with butter
All her walls.
Still, she held fast to faith
That a sweet little boy
With ebony curls
Would greet her
At Heaven’s Gate.
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You wrote just right!
No words can express how sad I am for you to loose your special little boy.