My First Song

I was maybe 5 or 6,
downstairs at my grandma’s house
with the orange 70s carpet
repeating lines I had come up with.
Something of opposites, of ice and fire,
in a sing-song voice.
Reaching
Struggling to find the next words.

And my grandma loved me,
she did,
wanted the best for me.
No factory job like her or my mother,
I was to be a doctor.
That’s why, when she found me
composing my silly song
she told me to stop.

And I did
for 15 years.
I even went on to become a doctor,
though not the kind she had envisioned
forgoing an MD for scientific discovery
and have come back
full of piss and vinegar
to what I started long ago