Success!
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy Michael Burch

We need our children to keep us humble
between toast and marmalade;

there is no time for a ticker-tape parade
before bed, no award, no bright statuette

to be delivered for mending skinned knees,
no wild bursts of approval for shoveling snow.

A kiss is the only approval they show;
to leave us—the first great success they achieve.

I wrote this poem after fixing my son Jeremy some toast and getting a kiss in return. Keywords/Tags: children, success, parents, toast, jam, marmalade, skinned, knees, kiss, approval

I crave you more,
than the sunshine marmalade,
want you more than,
the childhood games,
of which I've played,
lust for you more,
than tide between toes,
need you more,
than the maple tree can grow,
wishing for you,
with no end,
every lucky penny,
I will spend,
watch from my window,
the clouds float along,
I want, lust need you,
for both of us, we belong.