I NEED TO TALK TO YOU

PARENTS:

I need to talk to you, my dear,

Of many, many things:

Of what I wish and what I dream

And what my silence sings;

Of all the things I want for you

And all the things I fear,

And all the things I try to say

But never can make clear.

I wish that you could know me, yet

I'm glad that you do not.

Sometimes I see in you the unformed

Person I forgot.

I wish I could protect you

From all that conquered me,

And make of you a mirror of

The self I could not be.

CHILDREN:

I need to talk to you, right now!

I've got a lot to say

About the way you handle me

And why I act this way.

I know you love me, though sometimes

Your anger's all I see.

But if I do just what you want,

Then I'll be you, not me.

I need to get you off my back

And also have you near.

I need to learn the limits of

My courage and my fear.

I need to ramble on my own

And sometimes, yes, get lost,

And touch the heart of ecstasy

Regardless of the cost.

GRANDPARENTS:

I need to talk to all of you,

I am so much alone.

I hope that you can spare for me

Five minutes on the phone.

My life was once so full of life,

So packed with toil and love.

Now it's full of memories

That dance but do not move.

You do not know me really now --

To you I'm mainly old,

Befuddled, frail, incompetent,

A child you have to scold.

But inside I'm still mainly me,

The one who made you, you,

Now a husk without a seed

And little left to do.

ALL:

I need to talk to you, I need

All of you to know

The me I think of as myself,

The me I rarely show.

By those I love the most, I find

That I'm most often seen

Through acts I would undo and words

I do not really mean.

I need to tell you everything

That bursts within my heart,

Simply, just the way it is,

With neither craft nor art.

I need you all to see me

With love and sympathy,

And so I need to talk to you --

You need to talk to me?

© Nicholas Gordon