Wife, Mother
I only had one son
Richard.
He’s married now.
Lives in a brick and wood house
In a quiet neighborhood
On a dead end street.
Some days I just can’t understand
How i raised a boy
Who now gives his lawn a crewcut
Every week,
And finishes it off with meticulously trimming the edges
With his gasoline powered heavy duty trimmer.
Every week.
How did this happen?
So obsessive,
So obsessive,
So exact,
So unyielding.
So unmindful of the impact his actions have
On the environment.
So close minded and religiously patriotic,
Which I didn’t understand
And now I will never understand.
Is his mindset a reaction to the freedom he had
As a child?
He was my only but I tried not to hover.
He was my only but I tried not to hover.
I tried not to be the mother who said,
Wait until your father comes home.
I tried to be the mother who listened,
Without criticising,
The mother who also had a life,
And didn’t want to give up on enjoying life.
I tried not to interfere when
He went through his phases,
Long hair, short hair,
Talking back, not talking at all
Smoking, drinking,
Girls.
Did I give him so much freedom
That now he needs order?
Or is he trying to show his father
How to be a man.
George, Husband, Father
She never did figure out what a mother is supposed to do.
Sure she gave birth
To a son,
Who would carry on the family name.
But she never understood how to discipline,
All she wanted to do was love.
Luckily, he saw right through her
As I did
And grew to be the man he was meant to be.
I guess he admired me
More than I realized.
Because he became more than my son,
He became my clone.
Funny, how that worked out.
I was always worried that
Her love would raise our boy to be a pansy.
For a while I thought he might wind up gay.
All that worrying for nothing.
He grew up to be strong, like me.
Uncompromising,
Unwavering,
A man.
Who knows how to get his way
And how to put up with women
In a way that they think
Means we care.
We don’t.
I think I loved her when we married.
But over the years love wasn’t the point of it.
I had a job to work
Money to earn
Son to keep in line.
I let her do what she wanted
And made sure that at the end of the day
I was the one in charge
And my boy knew it.
She didn’t fool him
Or me.
I raised a son into a man.
By being the strength she never could be.
Love?
Yes, in a way.
Yes, in a way.
I guess it depends upon how you use it.
