Dear daughter-in-law,
Please forgive me:
My son - the man you love - just told me
he'll do laundry with me forever.
He also said he’ll always be there for me.
His actual words were:
“Siempre te voy a acompañar a la lavandería”,
“Yo siempre voy a estar aquí para ti”
Do you think he has been listening to me?
You and I are from… oh, so very different times
I’ll say and do things that may bother you
Just know I may not even be aware
unless you tell me.
Please tell me.
All I want is for you to feel at home with us
For you to know we’ll love you too, because our son chose you
(and you chose him)
You must be quite something if he did
I won’t hold him accountable for those great things he said today
You’ll probably live far away
Though I secretly wish for you to love the mountains
and don’t mind 300 days of sunshine a year
Please forgive me:
I’ll always be there for him
available so he can pick me up for coffee and lunch
so he can hug my now frail bones
Would you like to come with us?
If you decide to have little creatures of your own,
I’ll be there to help if I’m still here and well
my ways will be outdated then
but I’ll be happy to learn
Alright, I won’t keep you any longer
Just wanted to share
the type of thing
Camilo says when we’re together everyday.
You may not even exist yet.
The man I’m talking about,
the man you love,
just turned 3 years old one week ago.
Patricia Pineda
For those who might wonder: I picked a woman for the poem because, statistically, it’s most likely. But love in any form is welcome.