At some point, Jack asks Jennie:
When are you going to take over the kitchen?
Jennie might as well have heard:
When are you going to mutiny?
With compassion for her mom's dependency, Jennie replies:
Jack, the kitchen is all Mom has left
Then, wearing her best placating smile
Jack's sweetheart goes on:
I don't mind if the kitchen continues to be my mother's domaine
I don't know if that rankles my dad or not
What I do know is this:
Both my mom and Grandma Ella were terrific cooks
Every night a delicious meal welcomed Jack home
And on Fridays, the fragrant aroma of
Grandma's baked goods wafted throughout the apartment
So if the way to a man's heart is through his stomach
It's likely that my father thought himself a lucky guy
I wish I could say all was harmonic from then on
However I can't
What I can tell you is this:
I was born at the end of 1943
Two years and one day after Pearl Harbor, to be exact
And I remember how scared I'd felt when
Vein popping, head on collisions broke out, now and then:
Each time I'd watched suppressed frustration spring free
My mind snapped to attention while
Shivers of fear rushed down my spine straight into
My white, high-top, Stride Rite shoes …
So, I'd find someplace to hide until
Anger was spent and emotion calmed down
It's common for emotional outbursts
To take place in homes where
Adults, untrained in self control
Expect children to do as I say, not as I do
Suggesting how readily this rule of thumb is forgotten:
Little peeps tend to absorb and mimic
Everything big peeps say and do
This is why everything comes full circle, most especially
At times when grief, confusion and fear of irretrivable loss
Threaten a person's sense of safety
Though the emotional environment seemed harmonic when
Daddy's key opened our apartment's front door
Fear of emotional eruption stalked my peace of mind
And as emotional combustion proves too complex
For a toddler's undeveloped mind to comprehend
I'd scratched at myself while treading lightly on egg shells until
Insight into this fact catalyzed a change in my behavior, over time:
The degree of disrespect with which
A captain addresses the crew
Catalyzes a natural change in attitude from
Egg shelled obedience to mutinous rebellion, when
What we're really hoping to inject into our relationships is
An attitude of cooperative generosity
When are you going to take over the kitchen?
Jennie might as well have heard:
When are you going to mutiny?
With compassion for her mom's dependency, Jennie replies:
Jack, the kitchen is all Mom has left
Then, wearing her best placating smile
Jack's sweetheart goes on:
I don't mind if the kitchen continues to be my mother's domaine
I don't know if that rankles my dad or not
What I do know is this:
Both my mom and Grandma Ella were terrific cooks
Every night a delicious meal welcomed Jack home
And on Fridays, the fragrant aroma of
Grandma's baked goods wafted throughout the apartment
So if the way to a man's heart is through his stomach
It's likely that my father thought himself a lucky guy
I wish I could say all was harmonic from then on
However I can't
What I can tell you is this:
I was born at the end of 1943
Two years and one day after Pearl Harbor, to be exact
And I remember how scared I'd felt when
Vein popping, head on collisions broke out, now and then:
Each time I'd watched suppressed frustration spring free
My mind snapped to attention while
Shivers of fear rushed down my spine straight into
My white, high-top, Stride Rite shoes …
So, I'd find someplace to hide until
Anger was spent and emotion calmed down
It's common for emotional outbursts
To take place in homes where
Adults, untrained in self control
Expect children to do as I say, not as I do
Suggesting how readily this rule of thumb is forgotten:
Little peeps tend to absorb and mimic
Everything big peeps say and do
This is why everything comes full circle, most especially
At times when grief, confusion and fear of irretrivable loss
Threaten a person's sense of safety
Though the emotional environment seemed harmonic when
Daddy's key opened our apartment's front door
Fear of emotional eruption stalked my peace of mind
And as emotional combustion proves too complex
For a toddler's undeveloped mind to comprehend
I'd scratched at myself while treading lightly on egg shells until
Insight into this fact catalyzed a change in my behavior, over time:
The degree of disrespect with which
A captain addresses the crew
Catalyzes a natural change in attitude from
Egg shelled obedience to mutinous rebellion, when
What we're really hoping to inject into our relationships is
An attitude of cooperative generosity
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