2025. június 27., péntek

Judith Viorst: Twenty Questions

1. Can a person who used to wear a Ban the Bomb button
    And a Free Angela Davis button
    And an Uppity Women Unite button
    And a Get Out of Viet Nam button
    Find happiness being a person with a 
    Set of fondue forks, a fish poacher, and a wok?

2. Is there an economic rule that says
    No matter how much we earn and how little we spend,
    There's no such thing as getting out of hock?

3. How do I know if the time has come to
    Accept my limitations,
    Or whether I still ought to try to
    Fulfill my promise?

4. How come I'm reading articles
    With names like A Woman's Guide to Cosmetic Surgery
    More than I'm reading the poems of Dylan Thomas?

5. If I had an either/or choice
    Would I prefer to be deservedly respected,
    Or would I prefer to be mindlessly adored?

6. If we totally take the blame when our children
    Stutter and wet their beds,
    And are busted and maladjusted and drop out of school,
    Do we get to take the credit if our children
    Grow up to be brilliant, plus very nice people,
    Plus mentally healthy and chairmen of the board?

7. When, instead of vice versa,
    Did I start to pick investments over adventure,
    And clean over scenic, and comfortable over instense?

8. Why does a relationship
    Between an older woman and younger man
    Suddenly seem to make a lot of sense?

9. Why am I always buying the clothes which,
    When they first come out,
    Nothing on earth (I swear) could make me buy?

10. What are the things which,
    Even though people won't be upset (they swear)
    If I'll only admit
    I should always deny?

11. Are some human beings
    Intellectually and emotionally incapable
    Of ever reading a road map,
    Or could I still learn to?

12. If six days a week I'm resposnible 
    And self-sufficient and competent and mature,
    On the seventh could I go find a womb to return to?

13. Couldn't a person who isn't expecting
    Praise for what she's doing
    At least expect some praise for not expecting it?

14. If I think that the fellow next door
    Is attempting to give me a kiss in the kitchen,
    Am I first allowed to be kissed before rejecting it?

15. How can I learn to relate to marijuana
    And bisexuality
    When I'm more at home with The Anniversary Waltz?

16. How come I've got those increcible insights
    Into all my faults
    And I've still got my faults?

17. Why couldn't somebody tell me
    That I haven't changed since college
    Without being practically blind or
    A terrible liar?

18. Why, since I've never had any intention
    Of going out on the streets and selling my body,
    Is it hard to be reaching an age where
    I won't find a buyer?

19. How come a charter member of NOW
    Is afraid to confess to her husband
    That the first day she drove their new car
    She dented the fender?

20. How will I ever be able to tell
    If what I achieve in life
    Ought to be called serenity -- not surrender?

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