Herewith, the latest selection from dusted-off published poetry and short fiction, circa 1970s vintage and beyond....
Nomenclator
We've known each other
for so long
all my life it seems
and when we were
very young
you called me
pieface and mooncow.
Later when we grew
slightly older
and nature began to take
her inexorable course
my name was dear and honey
although I was still
the same me.
After we became
inseparable abetted by
a marriage contract
in soaring intimacy
I was Lillith
fecund Gaia.
Not long after
I became fondly mumsie
until our children
were old enough to name me
themselves
and I've been mom
for so many years.
Before I know it
another metamorphosis
will take place as
our children's children
lisp me gran/ma.
Somehow it seems
as though
I've never been
but what others
in their need
have named me.
c. 1980 Rita Rosenfeld
Published in Mamashee
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