Tales My Mother Tells

(7/5 Trochee form) “You were such a sweet smart girl,” my mom says to me when I ask her how I was in my infancy. Then she always tells me how early I first talked, saying “Jesus loves me” first; At six months I walked! And she says another thing making me feel good. Always I obeyed her by doing what I should. Mother says I helped her teach Jenny what to do. Jenny was five months old when I had turned two. Since I’d potty trained myself after I’d turned one, Mom says I trained Jenny too. Then when Jen was done. . . I trained Melanie, born next after I was three, So I guess a teacher’s what I was meant to be! Just one thing about me, though, drove my parents mad. When they put me down to sleep, I was very bad. Whether it was eight or nine, even after ten, I would yelp like some crazed pup locked up in a pen. Mother hated doing it, but my father said, “Let her be. Just let her scream in her little bed.” So they shut my door so they’d block my screeching out. And I must have hollered till I wore myself out! Once, my head got stuck between railings of my bed. Doc says now my neck sits wrong underneath my head! And I nearly lost an eye - Fell while running ‘round. For the doc to stitch me, four nurses held me down. Once while Mom learned how to park (I was just a sprout), sitting fiddling with the door, somehow I fell out. Mom backed up, then turned and saw I was not in sight. I was underneath a tire, winter coat on tight! Did my Mom exaggerate? Doc said, “Good to go!” Was I saved by my thick coat? Guess I’ll never know. These are tales my mother tells. One thing seems my fate. . . Nobody can make me sleep before very late!!! For Catie Lindsay's "Baby Boo's Shoes - Quickly Contest"