Wire Child

U figure it out

I remember as a child

Sitting home alone

My mother

My teacher

My friend

Would be my only company

 

I learned many things from her

How to make a casserole

How to kill ninjas with my bare hands

What was wrong or right

About history

About many creatures

 

In my living room she always stood

Waiting to take me to other places

To the past

The future

The life of other people

To far off places of different cultures

 

In those foreign lands

I noticed they didn’t have a mother like mine

They only had people

Fleshy, warm people

And I wondered

How do they learn?

What did they do for entertainment?

How did they live?

 

One night everything went dark

I couldn’t see

I didn’t know what to do

So I seeked out mother

Stumbling around

I finally found her

And tried to wake her up

But she never stirred

 

I tried and tried again

Violently shaking her

Screaming

Shouting

I finally gave in

And cried in the dark

Until someone walked in

It was the Intruder

She came in from time to time

Leaving food, drinks, clothes, etc

We didn’t touch

Hardly spoke

She would interrupt

Mine and Mother’s time

Telling me to do things

Things I didn’t want to do

 

Mother was more fun

She let me do whatever I wanted

But now she was dead

And I was now with only the Intruder

She looked down at me on the floor

And she cried too

Came down to me

And wrapped me in her arms

 

The touch felt warm

It felt weird

Felt different

Felt good

 

Reviews

[donny ingraham]

chilling fat how most of us leave our kids in front of the free babysitter

[TL Boehm]

This actually has a chilling veneer to it. We are often guilty of letting the TV raise our kids. That is what comes to mind as I read this. Well penned.