POETRY
My Beautiful Disgrace!
What a disgrace,
She falls behind her classmates,
What a disgrace,
She can’t pick up her pace.
What a disgrace,
I wait and wait in good faith,
What a disgrace,
Her talents are going to waste.
What a disgrace,
I barely get to see her face,
What a disgrace,
She escapes to another time and place.
What a shame,
The picket fence she refuses to aim,
What a shame,
She still has the same last name.
What a shame,
A glorious life she refuses to claim,
What a shame,
She still doesn’t care for fame.
What a shame,
My dreams and her dreams aren’t the same,
What a shame,
She only has herself to blame.
Love, sometimes, can taste like hate,
Despite all the well-intentioned criticisms I have made,
My daughter chooses to roam freely outside of her cage,
My sweet daughter, My beautiful disgrace!
— Sasi (October — November 2024)
To heal my inner child, I compile all the negative things my mother has said or implied about me on her bad days. I’m giving them a new life through poetry so that I can let them go. Now I’m free to be me and to love her.
