42 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
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date: 2019-08-20
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weight: 10
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---
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<div class="verse">
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There's some duality between sources of meaning,
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Between the types of stories we use to back identity.
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It's not quite good & bad or light & dark,
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Though I'm not yet sure just how to define it.
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Dad used to punish the dogs
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by locking then in the basement.
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If he was really mad,
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he'd toss then down there by the scruff.
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Mom moved me & her dogs to a new house —
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moved us three days early during the divorce.
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Her dog punched my ex stepdad in the crotch the night before,
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the nut-shot to end all nut-shots, & our time there.
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Few things make me feel as deeply about life as parenthood,
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even if it's just me caring for my dogs.
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Some reminders of that are intense enough to be raw, painful,
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salt in the wounds of mortality, maybe, or the ache of maternal love.
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The meaning behind the story of me & my dogs
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comes with a story of its own, or maybe several.
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It's bound up in stories to come,
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& these stories nest infinitely deep.
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Remembering that & shaping that,
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It's a part of making the meaning in my life.
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This isn't better against worse,
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it's not mom against dad.
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It's not a dichotomy at all, really,
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now that I think about it.
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It's something subtler, comfortably complex, a topic of its own.
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I guess it's just meaning & self.
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</div>
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