Dry Wells and Chinese Walls

Teenage Choices, a Father's Perspective

Dry Wells and Chinese Walls

 

The well of words runs dry between us

while the next Wall of China

grows block by block with each misstep.

It won’t keep out the hordes for long

and even I can climb or dig my way to you,

but I’ll go the long way round –

a thousand mile journey

begun with a single choice.

 

I say I can’t imagine this, a baby

to one so young, and your hoped for partner

at best a smoke dream, but I fear the worst,

an invitation to thieves whose honor hasn’t risen yet.

You always trashed treasures with no thought

but outward clean and order.

And now you want the baby

with no notion of each prize

in the bath water you leave drain away.

 

I don’t want this sideshow life for you

or for me, or for any in our house.

I might cry at your folly

but I never shed angry tears,

just shouts and rages and distant storms.

Now the storms grow loud as I rein them in,

afraid of rage fierce as massive hail.

I think you may never leave,

never grab hold of the world

while we grow old, burdened

with the weight you won’t carry.

 

And if I choose honesty

I also fear what I don’t know;

if there’ll be shame at your pregnancy,

if my head will be bowed

long past the creaking of my knees,

if I can bear any of it and stay,

if I can watch one bit of this tragic play

when how you waste your life,

the self-respect you sell for a false song,

shrieks at me in its high, clear tone,

in my ruthless inner voice,

and I long to pack my bags and sail away.

 

© 2009  David P. Eckert

 

 

 

Reviews

[Naomi Montana Walsh]

I believe some things can not be unchosen..nor can someone make those kind of choices for another..but the judgements we make can more or less seem like prophecy to the young..I say dare to change the course ahead.. a hard road is not always a bad road .. this is not an excerise of will or prideit's a new start .
The choice is now..for someone who as a teen keeps a baby, the lessons are to be learned, this poem is wonderful as an expression of thought and concerns.. but shame ? what is it really but our own choice as well..and what help is it now?