In my Sunday morning blind
I await a story untold
as the actors come on stage.
Between the welcoming cup of coffee
and the menu presentation
there with waving arms
was the heroine of the play.
Her gesture as the curtain
went up was
an emphatic rejection of an idea.
To her leading man
who carried many years of toil and failure
she said loudly: “of course you won’t like him.
He is your son-in-law!”
No man is ever good enough
for much cherished daughters
as it has been forever.
And what mother is not suspicious
of the new wife of the beloved son
as it has been forever.
Wedding Days are weeping Days
when the dearly beloved kids
are sent home with the dreadful intruder.
Fathers carry extra hankies
for grieving mothers who work hard
to keep fathers from too much champagne.
Fathers give away their daughters
but no mother ever gives away a son
and the meaning is clear.
Daughter loss is softened somewhat
by a mutual interest in the masculine
hunting, fishing and beer drinking tail gates.
But son loss cannot be accepted without
the substitution of motherhood
in the form of many grandchildren.
No, you won’t like the intruder not
to appear for many more years
but fake it as it has always been.
Doug Minnis
October 4, 2011