Tonight at dVerse Poets Pub our host sets a challenge around one word: this time it’s “light”:
Greetings, poets! De Jackson, aka WhimsyGizmo, de-lighted to be here to host Quadrille Monday, when we take to paper to pen featherlight poems of just 44 words…
Okay, reader, I cheated. There are 44 words in the first (24) and third (20) stanzas, which could be self-contained as a quadrille. The middle stanza (23), though, was written after the first and before the third, and belongs with these shepherding, quadrille-forming verses. Just for anyone whose grasp of English vocabulary is different from mine: a landing-light is a lamp for illuminating the horizontal floor between stairways, particularly a floor (étage) from which bedrooms open out. As in: “I’ll leave the landing light on to keep [a small child] company”
leave it on
leave the landing-light on, mummy
'cos it's dark when you go down
the stairs that separate us, mummy,
when you leave me all alone
you say I need time to recover
from all th'excitements of the day.
sixty years and i'm not over
th'abandonment. You went away.
leave the landing-light - 'cause, mummy,
darkness terrifies my fear.
And even darker is the silence:
listening, waiting for you here.
© Kathy Labrum McVittie 14 October 2024
leave it on - a quadrille
leave the landing-light on, mummy
'cos it's dark when you go down
the stairs that separate us, mummy,
when you leave me all alone
leave the landing-light - 'cause, mummy,
darkness terrifies my fear.
And even darker is the silence:
listening, waiting for you here.
© Kathy Labrum McVittie 14 October 2024
Okay, I cheated at the word puzzles I invented, lying upstairs night after night while my parents and three elder sisters were practising at being grown-ups downstairs, having fun, laughter, supper without me – all those stairs and banisters away.
Okay I treated myself to fantasy and imagination, to entertain the restless mind that wouldn’t be ready for sleep for several hours, after everybody else had come to bed and the landing light had been turned off unceremoniously by the Last One Up, leaving me (after the allowed Tuck You In and extra kiss) at the mercy of the Bated Breath Silence of the (un)sleeping house.
writingpresence 
Love it as a quadrille, but that middle stanza really made it complete.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Bjorn for the validation. And now, sixtyfive years on, I need the light on so I don’t fall downstairs!
LikeLike
This works well, as both the Q and the longer piece. I remember this feeling, and you’ve channeled it beautifully.
LikeLiked by 1 person
thank you De, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one being Vigilant on behalf of All the Others!
LikeLike
the middle stanza is enlightening 😜
for the thought you need to complete.
it’s lovely and very sad too.
as a quadrille it works too. Very touching. Thanks for sharing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your understanding, Selma!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Poignant especially the child –and then the adult– calling out to Mummy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your perceptiveness here, Li!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I appreciate how you bring fresh perspectives to the table every time. This post gave me a lot to think about!
LikeLiked by 1 person
… and only now have I gotten around to responding to your kind comment, Marshall!
And now it’s barely dark at night in northern Scotland where I am staying for the ummer months.
LikeLike