And you all get to suffer through it. My thanks for everybody who liked the Jabberwocky parody.
Moe
On the escalators,
wearing suits of our fathers,
dresses of our mothers,
straight-backed, dignified,
while never admitting
that the cuffs of our pants
spill over flopping shoes
or that our gloves and pearls
drag the floor behind us.
We are grown-ups, yes, yes.
We have degrees, jobs, homes,
a shared car or a bed
- though we wake up at night
and look over with awe -
We smirk and insist that
this is no game we play.
We are not children, still,
keeping a child's-eye view.
And yet, I looked downwards
to see that my pants' cuffs
needed no folding up;
they had shrunk to fit, or
I grew an inch. Or foot.
My suit doesn't engulf
the way it used to do,
and, worse of all, my tie
is a tie now, not noose.
I wasn't done!, I shout -
Well, I don't: public place
and all, you understand -
I whisper it instead
as men-as-boys-as-men
stream past me to their games.
I wasn't done; I wanted...
something, I'm not sure what.
Magic. Grace. Spider-sense.
But when I grumble on
And mutter about how
unfair growing up is,
My grimace at mirrors
reflects my father's face.
He matches look for look.
He is a handsome sort,
I'll say that about him;
It might not be so bad.
But I will not give up
my Saturday cartoons.
Deal with it, adulthood.
I really, really like this. Though I now have a mental image of you on an escalator in a jacket and skirt.
Posted by: James Casey | March 02, 2004 at 04:10 AM
Huzzah!
Posted by: engineer_charley | March 02, 2004 at 12:28 PM
That's a nice piece, Moe. Very nice. "I wasn't done" really rings true - protest, not simple nostalgia.
I've got something I'm posting here & there today, and this seems like a good spot for it somehow. My better half's a would-be animator, & so she always has a line on good animated shorts. This one kept me laughing for 20 minutes.
It's called "Fishes," from Studio Mobile in New York, but I think of it as Fun with Celine Dion.
Posted by: Jordan | March 02, 2004 at 12:59 PM
Flash Player required, I should say.
Posted by: Jordan | March 02, 2004 at 01:02 PM
Great poem, Moe, and recalls a little bit of Prufrockian wistfulness. Maybe I'll include it when I review poetry in the classes I'm teaching ;-)
Posted by: Matthew Stinson | March 03, 2004 at 01:03 PM