To Expect

My mother is French-Catholic

and my father an Irish Protestant.

What would anyone have expected of that?

Two, three kids? A dog? A pool?

My mother's womb lay wasted after

my brother and I.

Did she expect that?

When the people of my village

asked me questions and that were answered in french

they expected frog legs and escargots

while my french relatives

expected better grammar.

All they wanted was for me to be happy

when my parents shoved my face into

a math book.

My mother told me I could be anything I wanted to

as she watched me re-write an essay for the second time.

As I've learned, happiness is obtainable

once you've obtained the right

dreams.

It's as I expected