The Victims Poem by Sharon Olds
The Victims
When Mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and
took it in silence, all those years and then
kicked you out, suddenly, and her
kids loved it. Then you were fired, and we
grinned inside, the way people grinned when
Nixon's helicopter lifted off the South
Lawn for the last time. We were tickled
to think of your office taken away,
your secretaries taken away,
your lunches with three double bourbons,
your pencils, your reams of paper. Would they take your
suits back, too, those dark
carcasses hung in your closet, and the black
noses of your shoes with their large pores?
She had taught us to take it, to hate you and take it
until we pricked with her for your
annihilation, Father. Now I
pass the bums in doorways, the white
slugs of their bodies gleaming through slits in their
suits of compressed silt, the stained
flippers of their hands, the underwater
fire of their eyes, ships gone down with the
lanterns lit, and I wonder who took it and
took it from them in silence until they had
given it all away and had nothing
left but this.
And I totally disagree with Raymond Farrel. The poet does not linger in the unpleasant past. She is a survivor
Sharon reminisces of her old melancholy days here. A great piece of poetry. Appreciated
The complexities of modern age life like children celebrating divorce of parents beautifully presented. A well deserved modern poem of the day.
A sad great poem about the disentigration of a family, Sharon Olds is one of the great Poetess of our dark times, thanks for the rereadings
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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6/5/2023 11:40:28 AM # 1.0.0.1113
Alcoholism is a disease, and it obviously caused great damage to Ms. Olds and her family. Her father clearly needed professional help, and I don't believe he got it. Sharon Olds herself has a lot of unresolved issues herself. This poem is mean spirited and removes the chance of reconciliation with a person, another human being, her father, even if he were to have changed and reformed, and if makes the resolving of her inner turmoil unlikely too. Her turmail may be the source of her poetry but it is not a source of happiness.
Reconciliation isn't always an option, even if her father did get help he will always be that person. Sometimes its best to just forgive and move on without that person in your life