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CRAP! Please help!

Last-Wife's picture

Submitted by Last-Wife on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 9:26pm

I found a poem the other day in my "Chicken Soup for the Parent's Soul" that just brought me to tears! It was about a 16 year old young man, but when he sleeps he is still the little boy his mother remembers...

I laid the book aside, thinking I would create a quick scrapbook page for PITA 16, my SS, to remind him that even though he's a little shit, I do love him, as a last minute Christmas present.

I have searched high and low and can't find the book! We did a rush clean up job on Sunday for a family Christmas gathering, and I have no idea where it got placed. I NEED THAT POEM! I tried to "google" it but I can't find it... If anyone has that book, please find the poem, and repost it here so I can print it out and use it. The sooner the better, since I'd have to do it at school before break starts tomorrow, since we don't have a printer at home...

Comments

uptohere's picture

Submitted by uptohere on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 11:13pm

It's not an excerpt from "Love you Forever" is it? Just tryin' to help -- not sure if I am! Smile

smommy1's picture

Submitted by smommy1 on Wed, 12/22/2010 - 5:50am

When He Sleeps

He acts his age,
Which at sixteen,
Is twelve.
He hides his insecurities behind a boisterous
And cocky façade.
Like others of his age and gender,
He lives for weekends and strives for mediocrity,
Giving his parents grief and grey hair.

But if you could see him when he sleeps,
You would see the truth,
A prefect freckled face, framed by
An irreparable cowlick.
You would see the little boy who once stopped
His dad’s busy lawnmower to rescue a flower.

Now, you will hear him shout macho threats at his opponents,
While playing basketball.
He spews forth statistics of teams and players
With a know-it-all glint in his eye.
The biceps he sees in the mirror are twice as large
As those the rest of the world sees.

But if you could see him when he sleeps,
You would see a scrawny boy
Who was always the last pick for childhood games.
You would see eyes that idolized
Sports heroes, like his dad.
You would see big aspirations inside
A little body.

These days you may know him as a confident and fickle “Ladies’ Man,”
A teenage Casanova, whose greatest talent is dating.
Indeed on any given day he can be heard saying,
“What a babe!”

But if you could see him when he sleeps,
You would see the neighbourhood weakling
Who would defend his sisters to the death.
You would see the soiled little hands
That were always happiest inside his mother’s.

Today he excuses his behaviour as that of the “Normal guy.”
He claims to be average,
But I know better.
I’ve seen him, as he truly is,
When he sleeps.

Written by : Josie Lauritsen

Last-Wife's picture

Submitted by Last-Wife on Wed, 12/22/2010 - 5:23pm

Yes! That is it! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been "mom" since he was almost 4, and this really sums it up! He's even a basketball star! It's so perfect!