Shopping with Leia

Here's a little 'snapshot' poem I wrote yesterday after babysitting my grand-daughter Leia. I love taking her for a walk and, even though it was overcast, we went walking again yesterday up to the local shopping centre. She loves bananas and fairly screamed the supermarket down when I was busy trying to pay for the shopping and not giving her her next 'nana!

Shopping With Leia

1

her lip hasn't healed from last week
but i dress her in
day nappy, striped tights,
purple turtle neck
-now, hold your head still! -
the littlest jeans
and a denim jacket
fringed with fake fur -
'L.O.V.E' embroidered on the back -
shiney new dark tan shoes ...

last week she fell
down the little steps:
today
I wheel the perambulator
(hightech model, three giant wheels)
carefully to the path
where little drops of rain
tell me its raining -
so light
we don't feel it,
so warm
it evaporates as it falls ...

2

the check-out chap
raises both eyebrows
as she screams for more 'nana
and i ignore her,
paying the total,
trying to stay cool in
public embarrassment ...
sweetheart that she is!

grand-daughter and grand-dad -
what a picture -
not for the back
of my next book ...

there again -
maybe it's the cover shot