Getting priorities straight

For my friend Mike:
When our lunch discussion turned to the topic of people getting their priorities mixed up between family and career, I told you I had written a poem about that very subject. It's called Brian. It was inspired during a conversation I had with my cousin Shari in her New York apartment back in July 1994. I hope you like it.


Brian

Brian never really understood
That his family was on the line
That children need a daddy who works nine to five
But instead he worked from five to nine.

They were sleeping when he left the house
They were sleeping when he returned
The lonely little children never knew their dad
And they didn't care how much he earned.

So his wife became fond of the tennis coach
The children called him uncle Ray
And Brian never saw it coming
Until they packed and drove away.

So Brian went back to working
Trying to forget about the past
His hours stretched to midnight
But he told himself it wouldn't last.

He dreamed how it would be next time
The mistakes he wouldn't make again
He knew he had to cut his hours
But he didn't know exactly when.

And the years passed by too quickly
In five years he made V.P.
It was at a California convention
That he finally met Anna Lee.

And they married only two months later
And in three years had a family
And Brian remembered his vow from long ago
But it wasn't meant to be.

The fighting started shortly later
The divorce hit devastatingly
And Brian lost his second chance
It was really never meant to be.

He looks back now to reminisce
And tears fill up his eyes
He lost his job at age fifty-nine
His success was his demise.

So he drowns his sorrows in alcohol
And he remembers way back then
He swears he'd do better with one more chance
But he'd just do it all again.

Steven Pein
26 July 1994
Copyright 1994
.