2018-09-25

Life Before Children





Find an old photo your parents are in,
one that was taken before you were born.
If they’re like mine, they were handsome and thin.
I had no notion before mine were gone.

Are you aware what your mother declined,
how, for the joy of her caring for you,
plans of her own had to be left behind,
scholar or writer or singing the blues?

Has it occurred to you, maybe your Dad
gave up a job that he really enjoyed,
solely because of the low wage it paid,
took something boring, to better provide?

Most of us don’t know who Mom and Dad were,
how, in their youth, they had bright hopes and dreams.
We, self-absorbed, yet remain unaware,
thinking that we were their sole lifetime schemes.





This poem is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.

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