Father…
Why is it I should wait?
Wait too long and it will be too late–
there is a world in front of me,
perhaps you’re just too old still to see
there’s nothing I can do as but a boy,
I’m nothing more than the world’s toy
it takes a man to travel
and in unfettered heights to revel;
why do you hate me so?
Why do you treat me as a babe so low?
I want to learn, I want to help
I want to be more than a fleeting yelp.
Child…
What would you call a yelp?
Why are you so eager to join the kelp?
Swim, swim away from time;
oh, what I wouldn’t give to know again the easy rhyme
you name stagnation
in your howl for the abdication
of the innocence of love and play,
oh child, no, if only you could hear me pray–
I pray for you and for your soul,
a soul from me the world so stole–
perhaps it’s curse you never could
know there’s no return to bartered childhood.
The Waking Den 
awake the eyes, and peel back skin
to pry apart the soul within
An when you’ve picked the soul apart
You hold aloft your wounded heart
So soft a bare this borning thing,
Weeled & wiggling from the sting
Of such a tortured wounding birth
Your virgin breath repeats with curse
that was not an insult, by the way. it’s just the only response I had, and I figured you deserved to hear it.
I didn’t figure it was. My own poems weren’t about me anyhow, so i couldn’t take offense to responses to them. Besides, I figured your poem was just a continuing effort to show me how this poetry thing should really be done. 😛
I’m not trying to teach you shit! (and like you’d listen to me anyway)… I didn’t know whether they were about you, but they made me think & feel (although I didn’t quite LIKE them), which I felt you deserved to know.
…I was teasing. And you teach merely by doing what you do. Though I do find it amusing you do think this poetic attempt is about me.
lol… I KNOW it’s not about you now. but hey… it elicited a response.
i like the call and response in this chris….if only we would be content to stay in that childhood a bit longer instead of rushing out in the world…i feel that fathers heart, as i could not once…
Lovely melancholy piece… I really like the last four lines.
Have you heard Cat Steven’s Father & Son? I don’t think you copied, just saying this call & answer reminds me of it a little – well done. An age old theme and you’ve treated it so well, such a natural flow. Thanks!
Indeed! When I was younger, it was actually one of my favorites. Haven’t listened to it in years, actually…but i think I’m going to have to now. And if my poem aspired to touch the same topics as it, well…it’s a pale imitation to be sure!
As a parent and once a child I can see this from both sides of the coin. Just as Brian said he feels the father’s heart ….good write!
Ahh — yes.
We want to be older then we want to be younger.
Love the way you’ve captured this.
This tells the story – a novel wrapped inside a poem. One’s life provide the details. Beautiful, Chris.
“Why do you hate me so?” I can only imagine how that could tear through a parents heart–hearing those words echo. I enjoyed hearing the response; granted I would not have realized how much I would miss it if it were not there seeing as how it is there, but I think it adds wonderful dimension. (Sorry if that last statement makes not sense; it seemed important to say…if you can figure out why you’re one step ahead of me.)