Poetry

Sonnet from a Parent to an Adult Child

You never stop wanting to make it all better

Photo by Baylee Gramling on Unsplash

I don’t know how to help you, but I will,
If only I could figure out just how,
You are grown up, and I’m your mother still,
Yet problem-solving’s complicated now.

You always were so perfect in my eyes,
But looking back, I see I missed a lot,
The ones we tell ourselves are the worst lies,
That everything is fine when it is not.

“If onlys” are not answers in the end,
I made my choices based on what I knew,
I did my best, and yet I won’t pretend,
My best was always what was best for you.

So now we find ourselves against a wall,
A wall we built ourselves, we must admit,
To jump it, we must be prepared to fall,
Or find a way around or under it.

You are my gift unto the world, you see,
Don’t, don’t give up becoming what you’ll be.

©2022, Denise Shelton. All rights reserved.

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