A Classroom Visitor: January 1982

I had to bring my 10-month-old baby son to Short Story class at CEGEP Champlain St. Lawrence junior college in Quebec City in January 1982

A Classroom Visitor: January 1982

One’s life is an urn

Smashed into shards

Made up of memories

Sparked, determined, and falsified by

Songs, stories, and photographs.

Photos create shards.

Look! I’m a scrap in a snapshot

From January 1982:

My wife had a dental emergency –

She still suffers from searing dental pain;

there are no glossy pictures

Only old X-rays for that –

And our new son, barely 10 months young,

Found himself lolling groggily in my arms,

In my classroom, in front of my students.

I had to teach them grammar with this mewling accomplice.

Where on my face is the language of anxiety and exhaustion,

The bone-weary fatigue of those winter months?

That baby nodded off only in 30 minute intervals, each and every night.

He was miserable and cranky and seemed unable to thrive.

Young parents, we were terminally sleep deprived.

We spent every waking hour trying to pacify this wretched boy,

To quell his heart-rending tears.

One day I dropped him from a changing table; he fell on his head.

Believing him dead, I was ready to die too.

(He had a small contusion; what the doctors called une prune.)

We loved him so much; he was our beautiful Grecian urn

That we would soon break into shards.

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Robert McBryde Author: IndieReader approved, adolescence, teaching hippies, pop music, 1960s, 1970s, blogging, social media, CBC radio, literary non-fiction, tales, short stories, vignettes, poetry, immigrant experience, Quebec anglos, living in France, childhood and animal stories, creative memoirs, satire, autobiography, family relations, fathers, raising children, aging, facing death, travel, social commentary, love and marriage, translation: English-French; French-English

Publisher’s Note: Funny, manic, and wistful… self-deprecating creative nonfiction…The author, Robert McBryde, a professional translator, has been compared to David Sedaris for the sometimes-snarky autobiographical satire characterizing his literary sketches. Many of the stories in his new book, titled My Time with You Has Been Short but Very Funny, have been featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio network.

Author’s Note:

I’ve written a new book of creative non-fiction titled My Time with You Has Been Short but Very Funny, recently published and now on the market. The book is based on stories that I told over the years as a writer/ broadcaster and host on CBC radio based in Quebec City, Canada.

The book is available via my website. The purchase links are at the bottom of the home page.

https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/

Normally I will post at least two morning blogs per week. Stay tuned!

If you purchase a book via the platform of your choice, please leave a review!

Here is an excerpt from my IndieReader review:

“[This] memoir is… an enjoyable and touching read. Radio listeners in Quebec are already familiar with the wit and wisdom of Robert McBryde. The non-fiction collection, MY TIME WITH YOU HAS BEEN SHORT BUT VERY FUNNY, gives the rest of the world access to the author’s inimitable style.”

https://indiereader.com/book_review/my-time-with-you-has-been-short-but-very-funny/

“Please note that [this] book received a rating of 4 stars or above, making it “IndieReader Approved”, a designation we created to make it easier for readers and booksellers to identify quality indie titles. Post the sticker proudly, knowing that your title was judged by top industry professionals—not as merely a great indie book—but as great book, period.”

Here is a link to a cool group book review blog:

My Time With You Has Been Short But Very Funny, a review by Di

thebookreviewcrew.com