John Ciardi's "Mummy Slept Late and Daddy Fixed Breakfast"
The Daily Poem
Goldberry Studios
4.6 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2024
⏱️ 2 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s poem from John Ciardi goes out to all of the dads who can cook, all of the dads who can’t, all of the children who have endured the latter, and all of the moms who deserve to sleep late more often. Happy reading!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the Daily Poem, the podcast from Goldberry Studios. |
| 0:04.0 | I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Tuesday, July 2, 2024. |
| 0:09.0 | Today's poem is by John Chiardi, and it's a lighter touch than we usually get from him. |
| 0:17.4 | He's most famous for translating the Divine Comedy, which doesn't have as many laughs as the |
| 0:24.4 | title suggests. But here today, we have a joyful, a mirthful look into the domestic worst-case |
| 0:35.3 | scenario, at least if you are the children in question, I'd like to point out or add that, or maybe just contend, plead, that my own children would say this is not what happens in our house when mummy sleeps late and daddy fixes breakfast. But I think we can all sympathize. |
| 0:54.3 | This is a near, near universal human experience, even if it's not true of every single human household. |
| 1:01.8 | God forbid. |
| 1:03.1 | Here is Mummy slept late and Daddy fixed breakfast. |
| 1:08.3 | Daddy fixed breakfast. |
| 1:10.2 | He made us each a waffle. It looked like gravel pudding. It tasted something awful. |
| 1:16.4 | Ha ha, ha, he said, I'll try again. This time I'll get it right. But what I got was in between the tumines and anthracite. |
| 1:24.7 | A little too well done? Oh, well, I'll have to start all over. That time, what landed |
| 1:29.1 | on my plate looked like a manhole cover. I tried to cut it with a fork. The fork gave off a spark. |
| 1:36.1 | I tried a knife and twisted it into a question mark. I tried it with a hacksaw. I tried it with a torch. |
| 1:42.8 | It didn't even make a dent. It didn't even |
| 1:45.0 | scorch. The next time Dad gets breakfast when mummy's sleeping late, I think I'll skip the waffles. |
| 1:52.7 | I'd sooner eat the plate. This has been the Daily Poem. |
| 2:01.9 | Thanks so much for listening. |
| 2:04.1 | We'll be back tomorrow with another poem for you. |
| 2:07.5 | To listen to past episodes, to subscribe or support the show, |
| 2:11.3 | please visit dailypoempod.substack.com. And for all of us here at Goldberry Studios, |
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