For You

We all want to believe our children will love us
Hold us, kiss us, stay with us,
and wrap their little hands around our fingers
Big eyes watch big people with big love

But they're a squirmy type
Run away, out of our arms
No matter how far we stretch

Exploring dust bunnies in corners
Carrying shoes to bury in the sand box
They all, will all, run away

And you see then,
Perhaps they are not yours.

Individuals behind those big eyes
And we, again, are left to watch
Like past loves left,
Mother, fathers, gone,
And a thousand friends,
drifted away

We own no one,
Our children owe nothing
And we will all realize how little we are
How alone we are

And in that we must find some happiness
We must find some truth
For them, for us,
For you

Reviews

[Marc Mccune]

I am here, in this place you describe so well.

Alone, in the middle. Alone as a son and a father.
Both drawing away, and having been drawn away from.

My father; me, a father and
My sons; me a son.

And do they see the writer's heart I wear on my writer's sleeve, my parents, my children. me, in the middle.

[- - - - - - - - - >] Likemeter(tm)

[Richard McLin]

This is a very good piece. I had a heard time taking my eyes off of it, and I love it when I can't stop reading. Great job.

[Kelly D.]

The whole concept of this poem intrigues me very much. To think that no matter how much we want someone; how much our love for that person makes us want to own them, the individual is just that, an individual. That humans are fluid and incapable of being owned by another. Yet it doesn't stop us from wanting to own others, yet resisting that ourselves. The whole idea is very intimate to me, yet it keeps its distance. Ultimately, "they all, will all, run away."
Nice work.

[Jinx]

"But they're a squirmy type
Run away, out of our arms
No matter how far we stretch

Exploring dust bunnies in corners
Carrying shoes to bury in the sand box
They all, will all, run away"

It's all so true... I really enjoyed this poem. Makes me think of my childhood, my nieces and running after them, and my 1 year old great nephew that I now chase around because "squirmy" definitely suits him well!

[A. Dade]

"Big eyes watch big people with big love "

I

[REALIZE]

I like this I believe in some of what you were saying,

"We own no one,
Our children owe nothing
And we will all realize how little we are
How alone we are"

Deep work.

[A. Wall]

this is a good concept, something all parents can relate to, but it seems to 'tell' too much and not 'show' quite enough for a poem...

[Chaos X 3]

I agree with Patrick, very moving. I have two boys and I never thought of them just up and leaving one day but I guess, it'll happen.. Good work

[J. Patrick Darrow]

What a stirring piece. How painful is the embrace of freedom and individualism. How hopeful that our influence is ultimate. I am a parent and felt the warmth, and yet a melancholy fear of eventually letting go still pervades. Great poem.

[Kevin]

Well written!

[L. L. Jacobson]

Charlie-
one word:
B R E A T H T A K I N G .

I have two sons of my own, and the realism of the reality of these words, this poem, your wisdom, hits me.

We own no one,

...that right there is prophetic. People are loans from the universe, and we must take (good) care of them, or they leave. But then you have a line like this:

drifted away that bring all of that into one perspective: they do (leave)- it's inevitable.

Thanks for a moment of the ball of emotion forming in my throat, tears touching the surface of my eyes.
Thank God they have found these words.

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