“Fourteen” is Telaina Eriksen’s heartfelt letter to her teenaged son, and the man she hopes he becomes.
—
Fourteen
here, between childhood and adulthood, let me tell you again
what being a man is—it is
helping the overweight girl who fell,
even though people
said she must be your girlfriend, it is
reporting the players who say “faggot”
during League of Legends, it is
wearing a pink t-shirt for breast cancer awareness
to school, your dollar donation from your allowance
tucked deep inside your loose jeans, it is
reading your mom’s email about internet porn,
because she didn’t know how to talk to you
about it at the dinner table.
my sweet boy,
you have shown me what kind of man
you will be when you no longer live in my home.
please remember the world aches for tenderness.
***
Editor’s Note: Telaina Eriksen has published with us before. Read her wry, wonderful piece on marriage, “bitter, sweet, tart.”
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Photo by Down Under Photography /Flickr
I especially love that last line. Brava!!