Wednesday 7 March 2018

POETS UNITED - MONEY

“It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” - George Lorimer 

The topic for this week’s Midweek Motif at Poets United is “money”. Here is my contribution: 

The Will 

And finally the will was read,
At the appointed time,
To all interested parties
As stipulated to the solicitor
By the testator. 


“I give all my tangible personal property
And all policies and proceeds of insurance covering such property,
To my son…”

How odd, that he only called me “son” after his death,
While when he lived he simply ignored my existence.


So I have my “father’s” money,
Making his other relatives sour,
Their eyes dripping poison, choosing for me a slow painful death
(Had their eyes been daggers
I would have succumbed to multiple wounds and an easy death).


The stranger who on his deathbed acknowledged me
As his son and legal heir, made me a millionaire.
And yet how poor I feel, when no tears came to my eyes
At his death;
When no sense of loss accompanied his passing…


He left me money, but no memories;
I have no photos in an album;
He taught me nothing, we never spoke;
I know nothing of him, I have no knowledge of his heart;
He spent no time with, he took no interest.


The money willed to me, is but an afterthought,
A neat sum to buy some ease for his troubled conscience;
Atonement for sins of omission,
A purchase of a ticket to heaven,
Where all good fathers go.

8 comments:

  1. So heartbreaking and unpalatable! Sometimes this is the true face of reality. Sigh.

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  2. The intensity of feeling in this poem about unfeeling knocks me out! "He left me money, but no memories" is a tragedy. You reminded me of a poem I read long ago by Rita Dove called "Grape Sherbet." Do you know it? I just had to go and re-read it. Thank you.

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  3. The distance and emptiness resound in this poem

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  4. Nicholas, this is an amazing poem. The absent "father" who made you a millionaire and left you feeling impoverished by his absence in your life. Yes, trying to ease his conscience. But all the money in the world cant do that. I am glad you are able to see this so clearly, Nicholas. You are far richer in spirit than he could ever be.

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  5. Beautifully written, now I want to hear the father's story. What did he want with a son to shun him, and not want to teach him about life and greed (perhaps), or did he want a daughter? There is so much more that the reader sees in this.

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  6. So much money and no love. such a sad poem this is! You leave us with many questions.

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  7. Wow! This was riveting. Also, a subject I know well after my mother's death. My brother's family took everything. It was shocking, I still don't know how to respond. Your poem made me think of my father and mother I would have liked to know both of them better. After I became a teen-ager my family fell apart due to divorce and I lost them. Sorry for rambling it's your poetrys fault. Lol!

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  8. Very touching poetry, money can't fill all the gaps.

    Cheers
    MeenalSonal from AuraOfThoughts

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