This began as a game some bloggers played in 2008, to write about people who'd made an impact, in the same number of words as one's age, every day for a year. I did them less often and went on longer, adding one word each birthday. I stopped in 2016 and incorporated them into my main poetry blog. In 2019 I resumed the project and gave it its own blog again, with a new name, where it may unfold at its own (slow, intermittent) pace. I've labelled these verse portraits, but they're more like quick sketches: mere glimpses, impressions....


Tuesday 5 August 2008

Younger Stepson

We met at Christmas.
I guess you’d heard
there was someone new
in your father’s life.

You kissed me shyly on the cheek
and included me
in the present for your Dad:

scented bath salts.
'You might enjoy them
together,' you said.

16 years later, you’re not
slim youth but solid,
handsome man.

In one forgotten family drama
we exchanged fierce words.
Now we talk deeply,
good friends.



[Poem #37]

We no longer live near each other, but Younger Stepson is staying with his father and me this xmas, and the last line of the poem is truer than ever.

Cross-posted from my poetry blog The Passionate Crone, from whence, on 25 December 2011 (a Christmas 19 years later!) it was submitted for dVerse Christmas

1 comment:

  1. Comments from original posting:

    Grace 25 December 2011 at 07:49
    Nice recollection ~ I like that deep friendship over past fierce words ~
    Merry Christmas to you and your family ~

    Brian Miller 25 December 2011 at 07:54
    gotta love those moments of drama...but i am glad you have come far since...merry christmas to you and your family!

    Claudia 25 December 2011 at 09:53
    great that you're good friends now..think it's not easy for kids to accept their parent's new partner..merry christmas to you..

    zongrik 25 December 2011 at 10:02
    i'm glad you are friends and not in a state of not talking to each other

    Mary 25 December 2011 at 11:02
    what a heartfelt story! Glad you are accepted and are a good friend. Merry Christmas, Rosemary.

    ReplyDelete

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