My father continues to propose a game
He can only show up when there are rules
Engagement without artifice is too dull
He says:
I am the projector, telling stories in the dark
You are the screen, blank
Waiting for my light
An exciting role for both of us
Imagine all the possibilities
We’ll see Africa and France
Inhabit the lives of the wide world
Oh, the wisdom we’ll impart
But father, I want to be a living thing
This ferocity of spirit
Which you believe involves savage destruction
And I feel as an unrelenting intensity
(An argument over nuanced meaning)
Is really a disease
Brought about by this dynamic,
This Mephistophelian play
I know how you need to define me
It keeps me fixed upon the wall
We must move beyond the insight
That I am more than these moving pictures
Projected upon the screen
I am not this flat thing, nor these illusions,
Nor this disease of ferocity
I’m a breathing animal, with an indwelling divine nature
That may roam this earth
Creating my own tales
Of strange and marvelous encounters
I am the projector, telling stories in the dark
You are the screen, blank
Waiting for my light…
…funny how even at play a parent tends to project themselves upon their progeny…well written piece.
welcome.
amazing entry.
🙂
I liked the duality of this, how his thoughts are projected upon you and your struggle to define yourself. Well done!
~Renee
oh we so want to roam the earth, creating our own tales…breathing…love how you develop this…esp. the last lines are marvelous…the breathing animal..the wildness….the longing in this..great!
taking a stand to be yourself is a hard thing to try to convince some parents.
this is a great take on that.
Luna
I agree with Renee that there’s a great duality in this. Love the boldness, both actually and poetically, of “I am not this flat thing…” Nice job.
Nice that we begin with the father telling stories and end with the daughter breaking free to tell her own tales. I bet he admires her strength.
This does seem like a metaphor for what some parents do to their children. It’s also a lovely story in many ways of a father who would talk to his daughter in the only way he can. I must read it again. So many juicy tidbits of information in it that sends my mind to communication with my parents and my children.