Supposing
This week’s ReadWritePoem promt was a good exercise for me: take yourself out of the poem, let the narrator of the poem be somebody receiving a story rather than telling it. (You’ll notice I didn’t quite pull it off.)
Suppose
Suppose I had looked right
instead of left that day.
Would he still have caught my eye,
taken my hand,
my life?
What would I be
if I’d looked right?
(It’s not something she should be asking
me)
Suppose I had said no
instead of yes.
Woul have have asked again
Persisted, insisted on
acceptane?
Where would I be
if I’d said no?
(It’s not something I want to hear from
her)
Suppose I had gone to college
instead of typing class.
Would I have had a sorority sister
a homecoming
a life?
Who would I be
if I’d gone?
(A good question, but not one to ask
your child)
#
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3 Responses to “Supposing”
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I like the way you weave your thoughts about the mother’s right to be asking these things into the narrative, I also like the fact that the reader doesn’t know until the end that it is a mother speaking
Nice poem, jennifer, with an ending I wasn’t expecting. Poor little kiddo, listening to those questions. Well told, tender language.
(two typos, would, acceptane)
There’s a lot going on here and you handle it well. A meditation on chance, the parent-child relationship — I like it a lot.