Baby’s Navel

I was married to a Filipino man

Whose culture and beliefs were new to me.

“Don’t go barefoot” he would chide

“Or worms will seep through your footsies.”

There were times that he would cringe

When I went to bed with hair clean and wet.

For he grew up believing a soaked head in bed

Would end all vision. It hasn’t happened yet.

But my mother-in-law would always say,

If the baby cried when she was leaving,

“We must spit into the baby’s navel

In order to stop him grieving.”

Naida Lavon

06-15-10

Write Around Portland Workshop Summer 2010

Prompt:

“My ________ always used to say _______”

5 minute free write

This was submitted and accepted for the anthology