Life is bittersweet right now.
Last night, at my son's basketball game, a parent commented,
"Do you know why some species eat their young?
It's so they won't have to deal with teenagers."
And to some degree,
living with my sixteen and eighteen-year-olds
is a lot like that.
Irritating.
Exasperating.
Exhausting.
And yet, at the same time,
I grieve this growing.
Going.
Moving away.
Son #1 got a letter of intent yesterday.
And the idea of sending him
To live in an apartment
At a junior college
One thousand miles away
Seems absolutely
unimaginable.
And I think of all the stories read
Jerseys washed
Texts exchanged
(Where are you? Call me. Be careful. Love you)
And I cannot believe
that this sweet time
Is almost gone.
**********
"Winter Sundays"
Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
…What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
Poetry Friday is at "Hey, Jim Hill!"
4 comments:
I like seeing the photo-they look old for sure! I have written a number of pieces about saying goodbye; it is certainly a bittersweet time. You want them to venture forth, but really wish to stop time too. I like that 'stories read, jerseys washed, texts exchanged'. True, so true!
I've always loved Winter Sundays. Thank you so much for that link -- it was so wonderful to hear it read by the poet.
Very nice photo indeed. I may be wrong but you did share this picture before right? My daughter is ten right now but i do feel that she is slowly belonging to the world now than to me more than ever. Thank you for sharing this.
For some reason, your combination of poems made tears jump into my eyes. The wrenching of a mother's/parent's heart is a terrible and beautifully natural thing. Growing pains that ripple from teen to parent to long-distance friend.
Hey! But let's focus on the positive! A letter of intent! Huzzah!
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