Advice and Apology for Marek

To Marek . . .An Apology and An Advice

(Forgive the Adults, They Don't Know What They Are Doing)

 

    XXXIII            (i)

 

Who can explain, for you to understand

Why your world is all a mess and tangle?

You hold the stars in the palm of your hand

For it's your main job to build the castle

Of dreams that you can cling to, else growing

Up would have no meaning. It is a job

That adults are supposed to be giving

You all the help they can give instead of

Their sabotage at each arduous turn

In your road out of childhood, that alone,

You'll navigate. Finding, on your return,

A broken home from your first vacation:

Forgive the sins but don't forget the sense

Of lose, for which you'll build the recompense.

 

    XXXIV        (ii)

 

Don't look for justice -- life is never fair.

Neither you nor I, had asked to be born.

But we trudge along, now that we are here,

To make the most is our utmost concern.

Sometimes we get lucky, but being good

At what you do is what counts in the long

And oftentimes rather treacherous road

Up ahead. To tell the right from the wrong

You'll need the compass of experience

From adults -- whether they love you or they

Do not care a breath for your existence.

Time can be both your friend and enemy:

Molding the very substance of your soul

Whether you give your best or none at all!

 

    XXXV        (iii)

 

Do not begrudge the folks who have failed you

People can't give the which they don't possess

Let their shortcomings instead propel you

To push the envelope and find redress

For every kith and kin who might betray

The radiant rainbow of your childhood dreams

Some total stranger may by chance defray

The needed passport to some lofty schemes

Chances are kind to those prepared at heart

That every possible combination

Of trying circumstances may impart

To the less astute certain perdition.

For each venture you take, defray your best,

Leave time and chance and fate to dream the rest!