Poems for Parents Whose Children Are Going Away to College, by Paddy Raghunathan

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Come September

a pantoum

Ohio State’s your home come September,
Though we’ll be lonely, stuck as empty nesters.
Our home will be without its central member,
When college life will beckon each semester.

Though we’ll be lonely, stuck as empty nesters,
We’ll always cherish memories of you as a child.
When college life will beckon each semester,
We’ll keep on cheering you, from many miles.

We’ll always cherish memories of you as a child,
And watch you grow up into a young man.
We’ll keep on cheering you, from many miles,
And offer guidance when you need a hand.

Watching you grow up into a young man
Will make us proud and a bit wistful too.
Offering guidance when you need a hand,
We’ll help you navigate a world that’s new.

You’ll make us proud and a bit wistful too.
Our home will be without its central member,
As you go navigate a world that’s new.
Ohio State’s your home come September.

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Teaching You Right from Wrong

Almost at once, why this innate desire
To both admonish you and give you a hug?
Righting your wrongs is such a deep quagmire
You’ve trapped us in, then swallowed with a shrug.
How dare we tell you, “Now it’s time for bed,”
While you, our sweet child, need another second
To finish tightening your Lego Head
Or race with Donkey Kong whose larks have beckoned?
Who granted us the right to make you eat
Your meals within the bounds we stipulate,
And limit the screen time you amply treat
Yourself to, preach that you not stay up late?
Teaching you right from wrong has left us drained—
Quite like the time we got you potty-trained.

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Paddy Raghunathan is an IT Project Manager. His poems have appeared in Time Of Singing, A Journal For Christian Poetry, and in Ohio Poetry Association’s annual and ekphrastic anthologies. A translation of his from the Hindi language is featured in May 2023’s Creativity Webzine. In 2020, one of his sonnets appeared in the Cuyahoga County Library’s April Poetry Month collection online. In 2022, he was also a judge in Time Of Singing’s Ekphrastic Poetry Contest.