Free Play Friday: Another Poem About Family

This poem was written for a Poem-a-Day Chapbook Challenge. The prompt was to write a Love poem. The inspiration was a beautiful, intelligent 8th grade student I had who became a mother during Christmas vacation. Of course, names have been changed. This, and other poems can be enjoyed at www.virtualpoetryreading.com

Monica Says

Monica says, “My parents don’t trust me.

They say I don’t know what love is.

I’m too young to know. 

They’re just too old to remember.”

No Monica.

They remember all too well the pain

Of being fooled by love’s counterfeit.

They want to spare you that pain.

When you are thirteen,

Love is beautiful,

Airbrushed, glossy

and slick.

Just like the cover of a magazine.

It feels real, but it’s make believe.

So they tell you 

“You don’t know what love is”

as they kiss the seven of you good night.

Kiss each other

And hurry to catch two different buses

to make the third shift.