Liber Saturni - Chapter 64

Verses

Verse 13

Son, when you were born I understood why old kings feared heirs.

Verse 14

Not because you threatened my life.

Verse 15

Because you proved my life had become a before.

Verse 16

I watched you learn my habits faster than I could decide which ones deserved inheritance.

Verse 17

Parents speak of shaping children because admitting the reverse is frightening.

Verse 18

You made me notice every sentence of my father that had rented a room in my mouth.

Verse 19

Some I kept.

Verse 20

Some I evicted.

Verse 21

Some had already become load-bearing.

Verse 22

When we argued, I heard three generations speaking at once.

Verse 23

No wonder the kitchen felt crowded.

Verse 24

I wanted to spare you my mistakes.

Verse 25

Then I wanted you to make only approved new mistakes.

Verse 26

That was when I recognized Kronos.

Verse 27

The devouring father does not always use teeth.

Verse 28

Sometimes he uses advice without end.

Verse 29

Sometimes money with conditions.

Verse 30

Sometimes disappointment sharpened into duty.

Verse 31

So here is the inheritance I can give cleanly: permission to become unfamiliar to me.

Verse 32

If I understand you completely at forty, one of us has probably stopped growing.

Verse 33

I will still worry.

Verse 34

Love and fear share too many tools.

Verse 35

Your task is not to defeat me.

Verse 36

Mine is not to remain king.

Verse 37

May we both remember before the sickle becomes necessary.

Verse 38

Call when you can.

Verse 39

I mean that last command only halfway.