What’s under the pillow, you ask
With eyes curious as Alice’s would have been
And in your interest I bask
For you are apathetic; worst I’ve ever seen
And for once, it’s good to see you so keen
You look at the pillow, and frown
With lips pouting as kids your age would do
And in your sulk I am thrown
Into an concern that I find brand new
Of why your new interest you would not pursue
The pillow lies there, few feet from your hands
As you sit there, at the foot of your bed
I look at your eyes and I don’t understand
Why you won’t just bother to go right ahead
And lift up the pillow; you’re getting me scared
Though it’s not the first time I’ve feared
That you, my dear child, are special
For somewhere in your pretty, little head
A nerve or something that’s crucial
Is missing and therefore I shall
Learn to love you just as you are
And never allow me to wallow
In miseries that taint you my daughter
And I promise to join you in the afterglow
You’ll have when you learn what’s under the pillow
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queennobo @queennobo
If words were rivers, I'd love to swim at the deep end...If stories were fruits, I'd love to be a farmer...Go to queennobo's profile, and read more of his/her posts.
Em…this is more involved than it should be. At least that’s what I think.
I think you should have just attended the child’s curiosity rather than hint that something is wrong with the kid.
My opinion.
“Into an concern” should be “Into A concern”
I am not sure if you deliberately intended to create a dualistic expression of the girl’s interest in what is under the pillow, or if you made a mistake painting that dualism: In Line 2 you tell us that her eyes are as “curious as Alice’s” which shows that she was really really interested in knowing what was under the pillow, a level of interest that Line 3 seems to suggest makes the narrator really happy. But then you suddenly shock us out of that assumption by telling us that the girl is in the most indifferent state of mind that the narrator has ever witnessed. We are still trying to recover from that shock when you again surprise us with a return, in Line 4, to the first premise in Line 2 and 3! So is it a case of the child masking her intense desire to find out what is under the pillow, with an indifferent attitude which her mother can all too well see through? Are you trying to communicate that a child can not be smarter than his mother?
And I think these questions are closely related to what I take away from the second verse. I feel that the second verse expresses what we become when we thread unknown paths or decide to venture into something relatively unknown that promises some form of reward. Because in this stanza, her mother standing beside her, symbolizes assurance of good (for what parent will keep a snake or some kind of evil contraption under a pillow to hurt a dearly beloved child?), protection in the face of danger and in general, comfort. Many times, our fears are unfounded and become the reason why we never reach up to greater heights of accomplishments, enjoyment, fulfillment etc.
Even as the third verse is a continuation of this tension between uncertainty and fear (on the part of the child) and then wonder and disappointment (expressed by the narrator), the third verse takes me, somewhat surprisingly, to the Nigerian problem. God (the child’s mother) has buried so much for us under the pillow of earth and the sea, in the our common geographical borders called Nigeria. But we the citizens are sometimes afraid to discover these treasures that have been buried, scared that they might be our undoing.
The last two stanzas revolve around Lines 4 and 5 of the fourth stanza:
That you, my dear child, are special
For somewhere in your pretty, little head
A nerve or something that’s crucial
I come away from these stanzas believing that this child is suffering from Autism or other related disorder. Autists have problems with expressing emotion (this takes us to the dualism expressed in the first stanza) and are usually plagued with an intense distrust/fear of their environment, wanting it to be simple, repetitive, easy to navigate and devoid of surprises. It is possible that the promise of a gift under the pillow creates a dualistic tension; one of intense curiousity and fear of the unknown.
My take on this poem.
Well done. Keep improving your art. There is no end to learning.
Like the rhymes though I don’t understand the message.
Er, this can’t be more confusing.
Reread and all I could get was the adulation of a mother (I hope) for her daughter. Can you repaint this picture? It really is blurry, at least to me.
I like this. i felt it. good work.
Good work @queennobo…m a lil confused by the poem though…cos m getting several diffent meanings. Mayb nxt time u cld make the message more pointed n singular (if thts wht u hope2 achieve though)