Always Yearning For A Different Life 6.22.2008 Poem by Margaret Alice

A bad report, a terrible blow and a question
asked sadly – am I stupid; I rewrote my notes,
didn’t know a thing. He and me, both failing,
my translations also amiss – No, I say, you’re
clever enough just totally disinterested...

I see my efforts were a literal translation,
preserving the formal tone of the original
without an idiomatic rephrasing – I took no
part in the presentation; a son and a mother
equally bored by the mindless formalities

Tiaan, you've inherited all my worst attributes,
how can I force you to live as miserably as I do;
always yearning for a different life?