Scott Owens’ most recent poem to appear here was Dawn the Way I Want Her To (July 2012).
The Hard Times to Come
By Scott Owens
I start now preparing for what seems
impossible but surely will come some
desolate Friday in the year 2019
when you’ll look me square in the face and say,
I Hate You. It will be when you can’t go
where the other girls go, when I disapprove
of the boyfriend two years older, driving,
and two years more eager, when I’ve said, No,
to the dream you never should have had in the first place.
I know I won’t take it the way I should,
with stoic, calm indifference, with knowledge
that what I do is right, I’ll take it personally.
I’ll be offended. I’ll cry and you’ll know
just how much of my world you control.
impossible but surely will come some
desolate Friday in the year 2019
when you’ll look me square in the face and say,
I Hate You. It will be when you can’t go
where the other girls go, when I disapprove
of the boyfriend two years older, driving,
and two years more eager, when I’ve said, No,
to the dream you never should have had in the first place.
I know I won’t take it the way I should,
with stoic, calm indifference, with knowledge
that what I do is right, I’ll take it personally.
I’ll be offended. I’ll cry and you’ll know
just how much of my world you control.
Makes me remember and wish I could change some things. Nice work, Scott!
A word of advice from one who’s been there and done that: just don’t cry…