It went more like this…

They were broke most of the time
That’s all the two girls knew
The parents always saying
how broke they were
The two sisters just wished
they would somehow get fixed

From time to time
in the middle of this brokenness
a most wonderful thing would happen
A thing that said they weren’t broke
A baby would be born

And this one, this perfectly perfect being
arrived just after Christmas when they
were always the most broke

Heralded by a sudden flurry
of early morning excitement
in the cottage on Allerton Street
where the mother had concealed
the coming of a fifth child
Dr. Heibert arrived.

As with the others
no layette, no preparation
Now wrapped in a white towel
the baby rests
in the old wicker laundry basket

A short cry
brings the two sisters
rushing in wonderment
Little said, always so little said

The mother
folds back a corner of the blanket
Reaches tentatively towards the infant
The sisters tote the basket near
Each a handle in her hand
Each tugging to be more maternal than the other
Each trying to catch her mother’s eye

Another cry
the two young brothers
filled with excitement, run around the room
They want cocoa
and cinnamon on their toast

The mother brings her baby to her breast
The sisters turn to put bread in the toaster
The father will soon be back with orange juice

Later this sisters will search through doll clothes
Maybe something will fit. Word will get around
Neighbors will bring bags of diapers and buntings

Though in the stern Methodist eyes

    

of Mattie Lewis, they will feel a shaming glare
towards parents who were always broke
bringing another child into the world

For my sister, Noelle Jean Drummond Tryon Pabois Rubio Rilleau