FIRST KISS
The white room was ice cold
the sharp smell
of Detol disinfectant
took my breath away
wearing only my birthday suit
my skin bumped up
and made me shiver
just then a woman's
husky voice
came out of a small ablong box
and with a quiver she sang
"Somewhere over the rainbow ...
skies are blue ....
It was a Thursday night
in early May
The room was quiet
but something was not right
I shut my eyes and listened
to the woman sing
"Wishes do come true...."
A dark haired man
who couldn't take his eyes off of me
walked across the room
and turned the knobs on the oblong box
so fast
voices squealed like a chorus of mice
"We're too near the sea," said he
He pressed his ear to the oblong box
and listened to the hight-pitched sounds
He stopped when he hear a man
with an English voice say
"This is the BBC News...
The Germans have crossed into Belgium
...Luxembourg has fallen...
German tanks are rolling towards France...
Thousands are dead ..."
In the cathedral next door
foot steps lead into the pews
outside a solo bell tolled
out the sad news
I lay there alone
chilled to the bone
My blurry eyes searched
the bright lights
that went on and off
when gale force winds
hammered the place
and made it shake
but dark moving shapes
were all I could see
Then a multitude of ship sirens
blasted the night air
A man with an Irish voice said
"German U-boats are circling
outside the three-mile
limit of the Irish Sea
surrounding the Harbor of Rosslare
The news turned my body purple
I just lay there freezing
in the cold air
I readied myself to send up
my own flare
I clenched my hands
into tight little fists
and peddled my legs
in the air
my chin quivered
and made my lips tremble
I took a deep breath
an filled the room
with a piercing scream
and drowned out the woman
in the oblong box who sang
"Someday I'll wish upon a star .......
Soon I was dressed
in a tight pink gown
the man who wore all white
held me tight
he looked deep into my eyes and said
they were the most beautiful he'd ever seen
he hummed with the woman in the oblong box
and slowly waltzed me towards the bed
and handed me over
into outstretched arms
"She's all yours now," he said
"Oh, what a day to be born!"
another woman's voice cried
She sat up in bed
and hugged me close
"This is your mother," the man said
She first kissed the center of
my pulsing crown
showered kisses
on my forhead, my ears and nose
Twice she counted my fingers and toes
"We're going to name you
Anne Veronica" she said
just then the man
in the oblong box read
"Churchill has been named
Prime Minister of England!"
Ships bellowed
fog horms barked
church bells rang
I latched my hand
around my mother's warm finger
gave a big yawn, one deep sigh
I drifted into a deep slumber
while the woman in the oblong box sang on
"There's a land that I heard of ...
once in a lullaby.