CHANCE LINEAGE

(Family tree illsutration by Dimaro, released to Public Domain on Wikipedia)


My Mom and Dad
Both married other people
Briefly. In 1950,
Five years before I was born,
They both got divorced.
Rose had deserted my father;
Walter subjected my mother
To “indignities against her person,”
As Court put it. Walter took exception
To Mom’s claims,
Which didn’t get him anywhere.

Mom and Dad married each other
That same year. I wonder
If their exes have outlived them.

I wish I could talk
To Mom’s first husband.
I suspect she learned
A lot of moves from him
That she would later use on me.
“I don’t blame you,’” I’d say.
“If it had been possible,
I would have divorced her myself.”

But I guess I’m glad
That Walter drove my mom away;
Their breakup spared me
From a guttural last name
It would have choked me to pronounce.
And the personal indignities
That Mom would rain on me
Gave me a lot in common
With my harried father.
As for Rose, I guess she wanted
Someone stronger.

None of us can know
Just what has vanished
In the gap between
The things we want
And what we end up getting.

-- © 2010 by Jack Veasey


(All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced or duplicated in any way without the author's written permission.)