The Origin Story
You wouldn’t tell
that you thought you were a mother
when you were three-years-old
that you lived in the Germantown projects
and had a baby carriage for your baby doll
And you wrote 100 poems
before you wrote this one
like a veteran who talks about
everything but the war
You were the mother in the backseat
of the car that drove away
and you were the baby left
in a cabin on the Cape
the one that got left with a family friend
and at the Chelsea Naval hospital
with third degree burns
And where was your comfort
when your baby was left
and when you were the baby
too young to know
that the body holds
its wordless wounds
carries them for a lifetime?
The doll was packed up
and mailed to your house
but you wouldn’t touch her
and didn’t want her
Later, in school you learned about war
it was taught like math or spelling
as if it was perfectly natural
You had to memorize the dates
of wars that shouldn’t have happened
and you carried the weight
of generational trauma
And when asked what super power
you would want if you had one
‘to be invisible’ you answered
You forgot baby dolls
and moved on to Barbies
You didn’t talk to strangers
or wait for heroes
You marched for peace
and cherished children
You wrote your way through
an archeological dig
that led to the unearthing
of the carriage left empty
___________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United
February 11th, 2022 1:46 am
Poignant and moving.
‘the body holds / its wordless wounds / carries them for a lifetime’ – oh yes! And beautifully said.
February 11th, 2022 2:10 am
Powerfully said.
February 11th, 2022 3:23 am
And you wrote 100 poems
before you wrote this one
like a veteran who doesn’t
talk about the war….
loved this verse… and the journey the poem makes as it untangles the idea of war…
February 11th, 2022 11:33 am
I keep reading your poem over and over and feel for you and think of all of us who don’t tell all our stories even when we’re in our seventies. I grew up in a housing project and always kept it secret after we moved. So many things in yur poem touched me. It is powerful.
February 11th, 2022 11:59 am
Thank you, Chelsea. It’s a poem that made me think that all the poems I had written before it were merely steps to lead me to it. It was a poem I thought would be impossible to write, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to try. But because the idea came to me and all the poems I wrote before it paved the way, it came fairly easy. It’s a poem I had to trust was already in me. It’s almost like I was in training for it for all these years.
From my understanding, the Germantown projects were new in the ’50s and coveted by families.
February 11th, 2022 1:08 pm
Wow, very powerful words. You have to wonder how young a person has to be to NOT remember the horrors that go on around them.
February 11th, 2022 2:15 pm
Not a good start for future motherhood. Did your character dislike her own mother?
My sister had in Imaginary friend when she was two, I was seven, named “The Two-year Old Kid.” He became three on her third birthday but the Kid’s name didn’t change. My sister liked me as a big brother even though I teased her a lot.
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February 11th, 2022 2:52 pm
Long story. Love yes and separation.
February 11th, 2022 5:00 pm
The last stanza made my heart drop. That final image was heartbreaking even if sort of secretly expected. I think that the most difficult truths usually are.
February 12th, 2022 9:55 am
I think repeated viewings of Encanto (and repeated listening to the soundtrack) have definitely had me thinking more about generational trauma and the way we carry/ live with our wounds. No human gets through life without collecting at least a few of those. I am enchanted a bit at the idea of poems having a generational thread of their own, and they carry the memories of both pain and survival.
February 14th, 2022 11:35 am
The poem tells me that life, even from the beginning, is not an easy one. it’s a sad story, and maybe difficult to tell too.
February 16th, 2022 9:47 pm
Fantastic storytelling in this poem. I can’t pick a favorite line – there are so many standout lines!