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Channel Esther: Bad Grandparenting

Esther Cohen
May 20, 2015

by Esther Cohen

bbaySATURDAY night we
invited our neighbors
down the hall
for some champagne
they are young
they are blond they have
two boys sixteen months
apart in October they’ll have
a third boy we like them a lot
they are elevator friends
I wanted them to tell us
what their parents did
right and wrong as grandparents
because I am a little nervous
about the Grandparent Thing.
Having a child being a parent
one of those subjects too
many Hallmarky adjectives
few people tell the truth
about The Hard Parts.
My polite blond neighbors
spoke a long list
of Unfortunate
Intrusiveness. I wrote
their words in a new notebook
I will call Bad Grandparenting
Annie said her daughter in law
told her once
you had your child
this is mine.
Of course her
daughter in law
is right.
Even so.

Esther Cohen writes a daily poem at I Am and I Am Not.