The Things Missed

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By Ewan

Wed, 28 Jun 2023
  • 1388 reads
11 comments
 

The Things Missed

A first word from the first born,
drowned in the noise of working,
shirking duty when mufti's worn.

                                    women’s work, women’s work,
                                    the excuses we used to shirk and shirk.

The first stairs climbed alone,
and just the one watching,
watching your progress on their own.

                                    women’s lot, women’s lot,
                                    theirs is to wait, wait and watch.

School after school on all the first days
she’s waving and worrying,
crying in silence and other ways.

                                    women’s sighs, women’s sighs
                                    running home slowly wiping their eyes.

***

All fathers were absent then,
rearing the children? That wasn’t for men.

Later,

my

parents

became

children

- the ones

I never

had.
                                                                                   

Certificate PG
Other
Not Quite Good Enough
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Sooz006 on

Strong, Strong, Strong. My partner's father called him weak for crying at his sister's funeral, the world was different two generations down from today.

We had Mark's dad for the last two years, it was hard, it was hell, and eventually he wasted away until he forgot that he had a body. I was at home with him all day and as he weakened it was backbreaking and twenty-four hour a day. At first we had the aggression and then we had the dependence The whole two years were challenging as the dementia worsened by the day, but the last two days were awful-- we made the decision to do it at home, and I wouldn't have changed it for the world. 

But, If Mark goes the way of his dad, I'm sending him to his kids on Day One! :)

A Beautiful, Beautiful piece.  It was a good poem,until the end..and then it was great. . 

 

Submitted by celticman on

mums were the gods. men...what do I know, where they go? 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Powerful words Ewan.

I love the last line.

Turlough

Submitted by onemorething on

Moving, powerful, this is our Pick of the Day and has also inspired our new Inspiration Point. Do share on Facebook and Twitter. 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

This is our Poem of the Week! Congratulations! 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

I read this earlier and thought I'd come back to it later on to re-read and now I see it's recieved golden cherries AND poem of the week which I am very glad about. A deeply moving piece - big congratulations Ewan and great to see another blistering Inspiration Point has come from it too

 

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

I know of what you speak so well. And speak well you did. My mom had 11 of us - 12 if you included dad. Wonderful writing.

Rich

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

A strong message, beautifully written.

It's the parents who have free childcare from grandparents who are the real winners. You only hope they repay the favour twice over. Brilliant POTD.

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Very poignant. Brilliant poetry. Congratulations.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Poignant to remember the little things that meant so much unnoticed, unconsciously unappreciated, and unacknowledged at the time.

Though not 'hands on' probably much at the nappy-stage, I gained much from my father's very different involvement over the years, very complimentary.

My mother-in-law asked me what I was going to do when my last child went away (there was a big gap, so had had one or two around for many years). I replied, 'Look after you two', and she wryly realised it would probably be true, though in younger years, she'd defiantly said they would make sure we didn't have to do so. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Kris on

yesyes......

 

P.s.enlightened

Welcome back from the Rock*