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Wednesday 13 June 2012

A Childhood Memory

He sits amid
the kitchen pots and plates
and flicks a saucepan lid
with practised hands
assured
that it will spin upon its burnished rim
and spin again in sunlight
tossing arcs of gold
repeatedly
while shadows dance
in patterns on the floor
His loving eyes will follow
every turn
and arching arms enfold
its shining space
It slows and stumbles
gurgles to a halt
The silence fills
his open mouth
Tenaciously
he gently lifts it in the air
to spin again
While all around
the world waits


copyright Jo Collett 1994
First published in Scope, the magazine of Fellowship of Australian Writers in Queensland 

this poem was written when the eldest of my two sons was about four years old and I was coming to terms with his diagnosis of autism. Like a rock thrown into a calm pond, this disability was to create ripples which touched every surface of the lives of my husband, my younger son and myself. My little plate-spinning toddler is now a young man who works, drives his own car, studies and has a deep faith in God. To those families just starting out down this road, I encourage you to hold fast to faith, hope and love. It's a difficult journey and not one that any of us would choose, but God goes before and beside all of the way.

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