Upgrading Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Upgrading

"So you want to be a hairdresser, I bellowed, I gave you
a splendid education and that is how you repay me! "
"You can study to be a doctor or a lawyer or something
posh, but never a hairdresser."
"I struggled in poverty to get some kind of education at
the Academy of catering and pursership- I never have
heard that word before- you have now, this to drag me
out of the slum of being working class, and you want
to be a hairdresser! "
She is my daughter a product of a reluctant relationship
Her mother was a reserve nurse at a local hospital and
Was content with her status.
" If you persist in wanting to be a hairdresser leave my
house I will not have you here inviting the poverty
I tried to get away from."
I know where she works as a trainee hairdresser walk
past the salon, every day just to see how she is getting on,
but I won't let her see how much I love her, this stubborn
girl taking after her father