Last Child Leaving…by Robert M. Katzman
Many of us older Baby Boomer parents, now grandparents, remember this, as we now begin to disappear ourselves, and become: The Last Parent Leaving
(I wrote this about our 4th child, Sarah, now 22, about how her Mother Joy and I felt when she drove away from us and she disappeared from our eyes, as Joy, too now, has disappeared from mine.)
by Robert M. Katzman © June 17, 2014
The last one is sleeping
On the other side of our wall
Room’s randomly strewn with:
Clothes, makeup, empty food containers
Dolls, stuffed animals
Mysterious bits and pieces of technology
Towels, towels, towels
Extinct schoolwork
Her present is passing
She is leaving
*
Exasperated, delighted, charmed, furious
All within a moment
We are bewildered
Our dog sleeps
Too old to notice
White muzzle periodically puffing
We want to talk
She is out, gone, busy
She wants to talk
We drop everything
She is leaving
*
She asks questions
Acts girlish
Drops the sophistication
Lets us see the real girl
Beautiful without paint
Wants to talk all night
The energy flows
Mostly from her to us
We try to pass on our experience
Warn her
Advise her
Encourage her
We try–really try–to stay awake
She is leaving
*
Older sister almost forty
Older brother thirty-five
Youngest sister thirty-three
Our children have children
She is seventeen
Our parenthood extended
By decades
By her unexpected arrival
Her parents so different than theirs
We are wiser
We are older
We hurt for no reason
She is leaving
*
College brochures stacked in a corner
Surreptitiously read
When we are sleeping
Whispering into her phone
Fearful and giggling
Creeping toward independence
She: sees the endless vistas
We: see all the fences
Nursery school-Grammar school-High School
All lying together in the dust
In a corner of her bedroom
Irrelevant and shrinking
In her rear view mirror
Growing smaller
She is leaving
*
When she drives away
Out of her room
Out of our sight
Chaos leaving with her
From somewhere above us
A heavy curtain falls through Time
Bursting its rusty restraints
Our scheduled destinies resumed
Time, irritated
Has tolerated this delay
But only just
In her wake
Our dreaded transformation
Takes place in a wink
The parents disintegrate
Only grandparents live here now
She is gone
*
************************
Publishing News!
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: https://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95
(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9)$13.95 (10)$15.95 (15)$19.95
I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools should call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.
My Fighting Words Publishing Co. four original books, published between 2004 and 2007 are now out-of-print. I still have some left and will periodically offer them for sale on my new website.