An Ode to Pushy Parents

There stood at the corner of the village square

A young man named Poseidon.

**

No reference, I pray, to the Greek God,

For the Poseidon whom I speak of,

Was anything but.

Ambitiously named by his overzealous parents

He was but a shadow of normality.

**

His happiness was wrecked the day they tried

To make him laugh before he could smile

To make him sing before he could talk

To make him dance before he could walk.

**

From Day One they gave him no rest

Willing him to be better than the very best

Trying to live their unfulfilled dreams through their only son

Leaving no stone unturned to make him Number One

While other children played in the autumn sunshine

Poseidon sat inside with his books and pined.

**

Eighteen years and a lost childhood later

He decided he could take it no more

He sneaked out of his house and ran away

Without even so much as a backward glance

At the room where his sleeping parents lay.