Based on the poem Born Yesterday by Philip Larkin.
This is the last in this unconnected series of drabbles that I have been writing as revision for my GCSE Lit exam which will be on Thursday. I would love it if you could read the other poetry drabbles I have written and for you to comment if you want to.
Born Yesterday
Hello, hello little soul. Right now you are hope, you are so tiny and delicate but you could become anything. You have so much ahead of you and you have no idea of it now, curled up in my arms.
You are a very lucky girl because you have a lot of people around you who care an awful lot about you. They will help you in this big and scary world. There is just one most important wish I can hope for you before you start your adventure.
The others will wish for you to be smart, that you can solve impossible problems at the drop of a hat and that you can see things others can't. They hope you are the most ingenious human being on the planet and that nobody else can ever trick you.
The others will wish for you to be beautiful and dainty like a rose, that you turn just enough heads to give you that boost of confidence. They hope you will inspire artists as their muse and poets will write of your knowing smile.
The others will wish for you to be quick witted, that you will always know exactly how to sneak around without ever being caught. They hope you will be so successful that your name is whispered as legend in dark back alleys and that nobody can ever own your secrets.
The others will wish for you to be powerful, that you will be in control of any situation. They hope you will never be taken off guard and that you will never make the mistakes that others made before you, so that nobody you care about can be hurt because of your own faults.
I say that if you can achieve those things then go for it. By all means be intelligent and beautiful and sly and powerful but do not think for a moment that we will ever love you any less for being none of those things.
I wish for you to be happy, for whatever makes you feel warm inside to be enough to get you by the cold winters of this life. I wish you to make friends and have good people around you. I wish for you to have all number of skills in anything that takes your fancy.
I wish that you can blend into the crowd when it all gets too much to handle, I wish for you not to be so necessary to the world that you can't take a week off when you can't bring yourself to get out of bed.
I wish for you to be balanced and stable and safe, not compromised by beauty or innocence or an awkward level of intelligence. I wish that the things that make you, you, don't stop people from seeing the rest of your personality even if it isn't quite as eye catching.
If it seems that all this amounts to what society labels as dull and boring then that is what I wish. I wish for you to be dull and boring and ordinary and safe. I want you to survive long enough to see real life.
If you will be happiest as a detective or a spy or with a minor role in the British government then I hope you find what you are looking for. Just know that I want you to be safe and careful and to know that it's all okay.
You will grow up surrounded by unbelievable people, but you my darling daughter are by far the miracle here. You are the second chance, the good in the world that we had almost stopped believing in.
This life has not always been easy for me, and I can assure you that being unique is so much harder than you can imagine.
I wish for you to be normal my darling. I wish for you to be happy, for you are my daughter and you will always be special to me.