Misfit

Sleep light years away from my eyes;

Mom and Dad talk far into the night;

It’s the run-up to R-Day (Report Card, not Republic)

And the truth of my ‘performance’ will come to light.

*******

Whatever my scores, they’ll never be enough:

There’ll always be someone who’s managed ‘more’.

Once again, I’ll shame them in their social circuit:

A blot on their lives that they have to endure.

********

I don’t give a hoot for the ‘coveted’ professions,

For gilt-edged ‘packages’, or the corporate ladder;

I’m a dreamer, a thinker, a freedom-seeking soul,

But telling them this only makes them madder.

*********

Mom, Dad! I don’t want to live off you!

My own path in life I wish to discover;

It might not be what you dreamt for me,

But I wish you’d have faith and support my endeavour.

*********

I know you’re only trying to protect me,

You feel I might regret my choices some day;

But you’re trying to live my life for me:

I wish you’d trust me to live it my way.

*********

Wouldn’t it be better to regret my own choices

Than resent the ones you forced on me?

Don’t you think all of us would be much happier

If you could just accept me, and let me be?

**********

Tagged: ambition, endeavor, performance, report card, result, shame, support