Wee Hughie
Elizabeth Shane
“Wee Hughie” is a very moving short poem about a Mother losing her last child to his first day at school. I think any parent but particularly mothers find it very reminiscent of that day. I’m originally British and my family has English, Scottish & Irish roots, so evocative poems like this always take one back to older, simpler times.
Jef Graham,CEO
RGB Networks, Sunnyvale
Foxhound Master, Los Altos Hounds
Wee Hughie
He’s gone to school, wee Hughie,
An’ him not four,
Sure I saw the fright was in him
When he left the door.
But he took a hand o’ Denny,
An’ a hand o’ Dan,
Wi’ Joe’s owld coat upon him –
Och the poor wee man!
He cut the quarest figure,
More stout not thin:
An’ trotting right and steady
Wi’ his toes turned in.
I watched him to the corner
O’ the big turf stack,
An’ the more his feet went forrit,
Still his head turned back.
I followed to the turnin’
When they passed it by,
God help him he was cryin’,
An’, maybe, so was I.
Elizabeth Shane
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Blog 