Lonely Child
I’m quiet
She’s loud
I like alone
She likes a crowd
I’m shy
She’s bold
She likes to tell
I like to be told
I’m a cloud
She’s a storm
Hard to believe
Someday I’ll perform
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017
"I was a lonely child; I can’t remember any friends in grade school except Esther. Why she picked quiet, shy me for a friend, I don’t know. She was bold, laughing, quick. She would sit back of me in school and slowly pull one hair out of my braid. Miss Geary would say, “Hit her! With your ruler!” I never would. I liked Miss Geary. I intended to be a teacher, and would be like her—a good sport….I am still shy with people. I can easily face and talk with and sing to a hundred or a thousand. But at a party, next to a stranger, I haven’t much to say."
http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/
"I was a lonely child; I can’t remember any friends in grade school except Esther. Why she picked quiet, shy me for a friend, I don’t know. She was bold, laughing, quick. She would sit back of me in school and slowly pull one hair out of my braid. Miss Geary would say, “Hit her! With your ruler!” I never would. I liked Miss Geary. I intended to be a teacher, and would be like her—a good sport….I am still shy with people. I can easily face and talk with and sing to a hundred or a thousand. But at a party, next to a stranger, I haven’t much to say."
http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/
It's interesting to me how many famous people/ performers are introverts like me.
ReplyDeleteI love how you took the story and versified it, somehow capturing even more of that puzzling relationship than she comes out and expresses, with "cloud" and "storm". Sometimes, wanting to rhyme actually improves a piece rather than stilting it, right?
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