09 January 2024

Parents and Daughter

 


 

Why would you settle for any less than the real thing?
We want to know.
You won’t be protected, only marriage could do that.
Take your time, look around.  If he won’t marry you,
leave him.
Look at us, we are bound each to each, and have a home.
 
How can I try to explain, times have changed,
since you were young.
Do you hear me?  We’re in love and we’re going to live together.
Your marriage is good, and we know it.  Some day we'll 
be married.
But for now, we are going to get to know each other.
 
Why would you settle for any less than the real thing?
We want to know.
You won’t be protected, only marriage would do that.
Take your time, look around, if he won’t marry you,
leave him.
Look at us, we built a home.  Come home, live with us.

No, I can’t come back home.  We’re not the same,
you and we.
We travel in a different world, and want to be together.
As we fight the current draft, we will be side by side
in protest.
And I know we can’t stay. I know we have to go.


For Mary's prompt "Parent/Child Relationships" at What's Going On?  From a time long long ago.


My blog poems are rough drafts.
Please respect my copyright.
© 2024 Susan L. Chast


10 comments:

  1. Mary1/09/2024 9:55 AM

    Your poem addresses the generation gap so very well, and I can picture the conversations that must have taken place. And undoubtedly there were good reasons for both points of view. And it makes me think further about the gap between 'our' generation and the ones following. Another gap, I think. And I wonder if this has always been this way for generations past -- or if your 'parents'' way was the way it was for a century or more and it was only 'our' generation that broke the mold. I enjoyed this poem, Susan.

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  2. Sherry Blue Sky1/09/2024 8:19 PM

    Susan, you have expressed so well the change in viewpoint from our elders' to ours, back in the day, when we tried another way of being than what was shown to us. I really resonated with this poem............so well said.

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  3. Sumana Roy1/10/2024 5:49 AM

    I think every parent-child relationship has this north pole-south pole view. I believe parents' generation always speaks from experience and so most of the time what they say is true. I could feel the throbbing of heart of the parents in the first stanza specially.

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  4. Kim M. Russell1/10/2024 12:55 PM

    I agree that your poem is an excellent example of the generation gap, Susan. I was lucky to have young parents, my mother was just nineteen when she had me, and they were quite liberal, apart from which I left home to live in Germany when I was seventeen.

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  5. Anonymous1/10/2024 7:28 PM

    I can understand how this time would have been fraught as you stood up to your parents regarding whether or not to marry. You have captured one of the problems many of us faced when we were young and felt a really strong need to defy the conventions of our parent's generation. Suzanne - Wayfaring blog - Wordpress

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  6. Anonymous1/11/2024 5:17 AM

    Such a thoughtful and thought provoking dialogue - Jae

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  7. rch1/11/2024 6:33 AM

    Hi Susan, amazing how ideas change so quickly between generations. This would make a great song.

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  8. Anonymous1/11/2024 1:30 PM

    Well expressed conflict between the generations. Rall

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  9. Brother Ollie1/11/2024 5:06 PM

    serious, real, and lyrical

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  10. Dr. Pearl Ketover Prilik (PKP)1/14/2024 1:55 PM

    Ahhh so real, others have said, so authentic and so of the time... the sense of certainty vibrates!

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