Lesson, This Poem by Ben Partenay

I was told growing up
to make sure and read
the classics, least one time
before you die, mother said
this all while cooking oat-
meal for breakfast, father
tying his tie for work at
the counseling center, then
it was make sure to learn
your numbers well, this
said while father counted
out the bills, making sure
there was enough for
the next week, years
later it was both of them
sitting at the kitchen table
lecturing on love and how
to find it, this after talking
with father the previous night
about a man who couldn’t
stand his kids and was on
his seventh wife
and counting.