Half My Age

parenting

Half My Age

 

He peed on me
When he was an infant.
Diaper off
Poop in flight,
A real gusher
Splat on the wall.

 

At three
“Stop!”
The cyclone kid
Tripped,
Hit the table;
Split a lip.

 

When the pool
Emptied
In need of repair
He dived into green slime
Looking like a
Creature from
A dinosaur time.
“Daddy! Daddy!”

 

Divorced at three
Weekend visitations.
Monthly payments made.

 

During the in-between years
Lies arrived like
An unwanted relative,
One that stayed.
She tried sweet reason,
Bribes: candy, toys.
I was the beast,
The tyrant
Using a paddle.

 

“That’s child abuse,”
The Ex accused
While she followed
A politically correct path.
Of her own.

 

In high school,
Drama, like a pied piper,
Ruled over endless
F’s and D’s.

 

Weeknight phone calls,
“Tell him to do his homework.
He doesn’t listen to me.”

 

The high school staged ruled
It was king.
His other parent predicted,
“Fame and fortune are guaranteed.”

 

“Mom, I will buy
You a mansion;
A Mercedes
One day soon.”

 

Kicked out of three schools,
Earrings in nose,
Ears;
Tongue.
With temporary colors
In his daily rainbow hair.
“Dad, do you think I’m gay.
Mom and step-dad say so?”

 

“Step-dad,
You mean the guy
With the hookah
In the cupboard?”

 

A few months of college.
Not for him.
He waited tables
From LA to Vegas and beyond
With endless midnight raves
And trips to Disneyland
To add spice to his
Wasteland of a life.

 

Car wrecks
And restaurant jobs
Littered his wake.
“The last ticket
Was the cop’s fault.
He should have given
Me a break.”

 

Recovering from a burst appendix
With complications,
He blew in like
An autumn breeze.
“Dad, hook me up with a
Hollywood audition.”
With an unspoken
‘Before you die’
Hanging there
In the hospital air.

 

How could I?.

 

That’s the last time I saw
The boy that was half-my-age.

 

After the divorce,
She treated me
As if I were a thief
Stealing her dreams.

 

She painted him
With her colors.

 

My brush ran dry.

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

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