Today, as readers of Wednesday’s post and anyone who pays exceptionally close attention to the dedication in The Ambulance Box will know, is Aidan’s 10th birthday. Although I posted “The Condition” on Wednesday, I could not let the day itself go by unmarked here, so I give you this abnominal for Aidan, which was first published in the “Memory” issue of Irish Pages. With the #saytheirname hashtag current on Twitter, it seemed this was the most approriate poem for today, as it is constructed only out of the letters of Aidan’s full name.

Mid Achin’, a Hill, a Pipe
An abnominal for Aidan Michael Philip

Ma ainlie laddie, male meme
in ma clan; alpha in child line;

name hidden in mine. Handed
a damned deal: nae medic lanced

an ill in him. Nae pill, nae needle,
nae chalice healed

a dampened DNA chain.
Daddied, I claimed him hail.

I held him, palm in palm.
I named him. Mama called him

and he apened limpid een.
Mama hand and mine cleaned

him. He ailed me. Pain and pride
meld in ma manchild

happed deep, laid in land alane.
Ach — I parade a candid ache.

Maimed, I acclaim him
acme mac, ee-aipple, dim

peace candle. Hidden laddie
hained, clenched, clad in me.

Scots glossary:
ma my; ainlie only; laddie boy; nae no; hail whole; apened opened; een eyes; happed clothed; alane alone; ee-aipple eye-apple; hained enclosed, protected, preserved