A refutation of Philip Larkin’s assertion: ‘They fuck you up your mum and dad’
You lying toad! Your love of booze
Together with that verse’s fame
Lets kids, with words we’d never choose,
Dump on us parents all the blame.
We tuck them when dark descends
And buck them up through daylight hours
And, later, tolerate their friends
Whose alien ways are not like ours.
But kids, like youngsters all, in turn,
Will one day wear old hats and coats
And, sadly, find there’s more to learn
When they’ve dispersed their wild oats.
This be my verse, and this the truth,
As one discovers if one delves:
Youth hands on misery to youth
By blaming parents, not themselves.
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