When I Was Young Poem by John Schwarz

When I was young I often
wanted to leave my wife
but couldn't bare to leave my sons.
Later, I thought: 'What
do I care about them?
It's she that's important.
Each time I touch her
there's a big explosion;
I think she's got
control of my orgones.'
Thoughts like that don't
leave much time for thinking.
The boys came and went
as I came and went.
They were part of the problem
but they weren't MY part.
Then I realized there was
some kind of puzzling connection;
I could see the older
one felt about her the way I did;
he also felt about the younger one
the way I felt about HIM.
And the younger one felt about HIM
the way HE felt about me
but the younger one didn't feel
about ME like HE felt about me.
Then SHE tried to escape;
before I had tried to escape
but this was different:
She was really good at it.
The boys were good at it too.
One crashed his car and almost died;
(I didn't want to live either.)
The other shot heroin.
They were trying to set me free,
but, of course, I never did split.