Footsteps

[Delta40]

Sometime when I was a child,
I ballet danced and salmon leaped
across the heavy footprints
of my Grandma.
These days I smash
yet another jigsaw puzzle.

No matter how hard my daughter tries,
I lend her no meaningful picture.
Fragments remain my speciality.
How they are strewn everywhere
like the trail Grandma left behind.
This is the path we are destined to follow?

My daughter withdraws and sobs in the dark.
I too have sought sanctuary
in cemeteries and unknown places.
Grandma’s journey ended in a dark culvert
A pauper’s grave, a poor man's peace of mind,
for her curse of motherhood
is a punishment on us all.

My mother paid for the burial of pain and shame
She grieved over the cost
and drank so she might never look back.
Yesterday, I scattered her remains
across the insult to my Grandma's memory.
Perhaps my daughter will visit her wrath
upon me in a bid to make her whole
But I pray she will help me pick up all the pieces
Once again.

[zoolane]

Lovely poem about 3 generations of one family. I hope you and daughter can mended the bit that broken.

[PrinceMyshkin]

The overall devastating effect of this is well-prepared for by the THUD when we move from the lightness of the ballet dancing & salmon leaping to those Brobdingnagian last 2 lines of verse 1.

One of the saddest poems I've read on here but with the awareness you'll no doubt transmit to your daughter, she may very well indeed help you to pick up or reasemble all the pieces..

[hillwalker]

This is a complex, compelling mother/daughter poem - the most fraught relationship there is; written like a confessional.

It bears the stretch marks of suffering and the line

'Fragments remain my speciality.'

is as self-condemning as anything I have read on here.

Honest up to a point - but of course, writing wonderful poetry is another one you display constantly.

H

[Jerrybaldy]

As we all look for themes in peoples writing and I land at Delta and the matriarchy within the family. Also the darkness within those relationships and the sadness of the ****ed up faults that run through them.

I am particularly drawn to the lines
"Yesterday, I scattered her remains
across the insult to my Grandma's memory."

I am wondering if there was ever a strong male character in any of your postings and at the same time I am wondering if there was ever one in any of mine. Maybe thats why we are friends. We are both feminists :) But it is probably more parenthood and the fear you may be doing a crap job of it. Repeating mistakes so they can be repeated again.

I have written too much, but that in itself is a tribute to your poem.
You are far better than you think you are.
Jerry

[Hawkman]

A powerful poem Delta with a hint of, "The sins of the father afflict unto several generations," though for father read mother in this case. Nature and nurture both play a part in the formation of character. can our children ever escape their heritage? A good, and thought provoking poem.

Best, H