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Companion Poem

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Edited by William Justin Thirsk-Gaskill, Monday, 28 Feb 2011, 12:01

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.

 

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Pauline Hinchliffe, Sunday, 13 Mar 2011, 00:37)
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