<\/p>\n
It’s for your own good<\/p>\n
my father belted.<\/p>\n
My mother did the same<\/p>\n
at the dinner table with peas.<\/p>\n
Mr. Drury in grade 7 had me<\/p>\n
write lines of “P”s,<\/p>\n
“It’s for your own good.” he opined.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cigarettes are now $10 a pack<\/p>\n
and casinos $1,000 plane rides away.<\/p>\n
“It’s for your own good,” they say.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Seat belts, sanitariums and saints<\/p>\n
always a safe, sane, step away.<\/p>\n
My wife, my ever always wife<\/p>\n
books me monthly to see a doctor<\/p>\n
as much a dunce as a doctor can be.<\/p>\n
All he offers are pills and pleasantries.<\/p>\n
They both say, “It’s for your own good.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wars, weddings, sprayed green lawns<\/p>\n
taxes, papal proclamations and government acts.<\/p>\n
“It’s all for your own good,” they declare when asked.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My life nearly done and<\/p>\n
I have yet to truly taste<\/p>\n
what we call – free.<\/p>\n
I followed footsteps<\/p>\n
and danced to my own good<\/p>\n
doing as I was told.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thinking back, I now know<\/p>\n
how I came to be who I am<\/p>\n
this man, here and now<\/p>\n
finally at home in the world<\/p>\n
on edge, aware,<\/p>\n
of what is really good for me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My flusher finally broke.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It’s like one day you wake up<\/p>\n
and realize there ain’t no jello tree<\/p>\n
or the dictionary was written by a pedophile<\/p>\n
and<\/p>\n
you head out the door to plant or write your own.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s for your own good my father belted. My mother did the same at the dinner table with peas. Mr. Drury in grade 7 had me write lines of “P”s, “It’s for your own good.” he opined. Cigarettes are now $10 a pack and casinos $1,000 plane rides away. “It’s for your own … Continue reading Why I turned out the way I am<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-more-poems","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":789,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788\/revisions\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}