Michael Estabrook is retired. No more useless meetings under florescent lights in stuffy windowless rooms, he is able instead to focus on making better poems when he’s not endeavoring to satisfy his wife’s legendary Honey-Do List. His latest collection of poems is Bouncy House, edited by Larry Fagin (Green Zone Editions, 2016).
I recognize a similar story of how things were back in those days. Not 50 years for me, but over 40 for sure. I was the girl who didn’t think she was anything special until I’d met that boy who made me feel like I was for the first time in my life. I never knew other boys thought I was all that, until after high school and the first marriage to that boy was long over. He is the father of my only child, my daughter, born 10 months after that wedding. If only we knew then what we do today, what a difference that may have made … maybe.
I’m estranged from my daughter almost 7 years now, along with my 3 granddaughters. I still don’t know how it all quite happened. I just know that’s been the defining point in my life. What was before her, what’s been after, and my closeness to her was shattered. An emptiness and grief I wouldn’t wish on anyone in this lifetime.