This is a companion work I wrote to go with a poem written by Claire Jones, entitled 'Dear George'. Claire's poem is available at http://www.thehungrypoet.co.uk/
Dear Jared
I feel as if I’m a failure as a step-parent
And I lament your having gone off Club Penguin
When you play Call of Duty (certificate 18) for hours
And then glibly describe how
You won the round by stabbing an enemy
In the head.
I felt as if I was a failure as a step-parent
When it was my turn to cook your tea
And I could not summon the resolve to persuade you
To have carrot and cucumber sticks
With your ketchup and salad-cream covered
Chicken-burger.
I feel as if I lack the gravitas my father had
Each time the pejorative terms I coin
About you fail to have any impact or,
What’s worse, make bad behaviour take on a mystique.
Your consumption of coca-cola has not diminished since I called it
The Devil’s wee-wee.
And my parents would never have caved-in
As I did, when you complained you did not ‘get’
Your maths homework and eventually,
Instead of trying to explain it another way,
I heaved an internal sigh and just told you
All the answers.
And I worry a great deal about your development
Because you are worse at finding things than
Any-one I have ever known, and your lies
About, for example, what happened to those Breakaways
Always seem to involve ninjas or blue dragons and are
Implausible.
But when I asked you if the underpants
You were wearing were the same as yesterday’s,
Without asking, you borrowed my pet phrase and said
‘I won’t say a word until I’ve seen my solicitor.’
When you uttered those words, I stopped being your stepfather
And became your dad.