PARENTAL NIGHTMARE

i emerge out of a murky
stream
causing my windows
to condensate
my thick grey skin
can take the barbed-wire
prongs no longer
I am generous in proportions
though not leviathan

I am a mother
of formidable beasts
to some who sit
in the judgement seat

my children make mistakes
make wrong choices
but I will correct with love
not anger
I will chastise with
kind words
not harshness

if they err
it does not make them evil
does not make them unworthy
just as I am not contemptible
for having imperfect children

the whale that is expectation
swathes me
suffocates me
strangles me
with the cord of
perceived perfection

while I am being crushed
by an impossible
belief
that I can breed
a perfect race

my heart is heavy
akin to a
pregnant caper berry
which erupts in claret flares when
trampled underfoot
like my feelings
when the weight of expectation
produces bigotry
intolerance