My Beginnings Poem

FYI--this was for school.

Beginnings--April 2001

As spring came, so did I

Born three weeks early at Melrose Wakefield hospital—
not early enough to make a difference,
but early enough to come as a shock.
Mom named me Madeline,
After an old children’s book series that my sister loved,
about a little girl in France who was braver than the other girls in her orphanage
We have nothing in common but our name and that were both “the smallest one”.
I was a happy baby, and easygoing.
Everything back then seems fuzzy now,
but I do remember one thing:
I was crawling down the hallway
and someone,
maybe Grandma,
swooped me up in her arms,
crooned over me and my toddler adorableness,
and I was struggling
because I wanted to be down again so badly.
There are lots of relatives besides the five of us:
Cousins Asher and Nina—
Asher’s adopted, and quieter,
while Nina’s energetic and such a tomboy that some can’t believe she’s a girl
Grandparents—Grandma Alla and Deda, down in Florida,
but Russian and quiet, both of them
Grandma Leone, just getting over cancer,
and very kind though she’s far away in Minnesota and I don’t see her much.
Then there’s the five of us—Mom, leader of the house,
always embarrassing,
quirky,
but nice to talk to
Dad, who’s more easygoing but just as powerful
Amanda, seventeen, with her fierceness and small stature
Josh, thirteen, with his terribly annoying personality,
impossible to live with or without.
Then there’s me—
happy as a butterfly,
cheeks red as roses,
skinny as a stick,
with chocolate-brown eyes and curly, frizzy dirt-brown hair,
always in the way.
With a weakness for chocolate,
a love of music, writing and reading
and a smile that lights up the world—
someone said I was born for smiling—
The youngest but the tallest of us three kids.
January 2013