That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for July 12, 2022

Mother finding it hard to pretend she’s interested in her son’s “What I did during my summer” essay.

/// Aatos reads from a fine-printed book.

He can’t see Mama’s far-away look.

She stares off into space,

her mind some other place,

not restored by the Prozac she took.

Mother is trying to remember who is this kid’s father.

if you don’t go back to school this fall, i will pullmy hair out!

She’s raising a literate son/

In hopes that he’ll be the one/

Who will earn such a pile/

he can move them in style/

To a place where they can see the sun.///

She’s finished with Finland, she claims/

And by golly, she’s done playing games !/

She’s determined to go/

To sun-kissed Monaco../

Even given her offspring French names !///

She’s come to the end of her tether/

But I do not think it’s the weather/

It’s the border they share/

With that darn Russian bear -/

She and Russia are too close together.

“Darn” is the word I substituted for "d*mned "! The proscribed word list appears to include “da*ned” ! What 90-yr-old Alabamian schoolmarm assembled the “naughty list” ? This is truly absurd – it’s INFANTILE !!

Mumma counting the minutes till she can take her next dose of antidepressants, while Junior does his best to entertain her, not knowing that he is the reason she takes them.

Esther waits out that limbo where its too late for coffee, too early for wine.

“Mom, it says here that to relieve your bellyache, you should put some lime in with the coconut and then mix it all up.”

The look on her face says it all/

Yes – mother is having a ball !/

She knows (unlike some)/

That her son is…well…dumb./

Why she bore him she just can’t recall…

“…and then he pulled her close. Her breasts pushing against his chest……”

Note to self: Never let your son read his father’s diary – even if he doesn’t understand all those words, you do!

If she strains, she can almost recall/

When she was “the Belle of the Ball/

A true rising star/

She had just “aced the bar”/

It appeared that she could have it all.. ///

“Momma, why is the sky blue? Momma, why is the grass green? Momma, why are you shaking your head like that?”

“Yes, Son, that really is where you came from. Now my duty is done.”

But it seems now that she was deceived/

And she’s more than a little aggrieved/

For she cannot afford/

Both tuition and board/

Therefore private school can’t be achieved..///

And it troubles me much to report/

That his Dad always comes up short/

At the end of the month/

(Daddy too ith a “dunth”)/

On his court-ordered child support…///

I’d should probably mention hith lithp/

Of which there is more than a withp/

When the Nazis arrive/

If this kid’s still alive/

He may well be burned to a crisp…///

So if mother’s not wreathed in smiles/

(She’s exhausted her womanly wiles..)/

She’s a Mom, all the the same/

And she must play the game../

Or perhaps it’s the pain of her piles…

“Wow, Mom. Your ‘little black book’ is way bigger than Dad’s.”

.

“Ha ha. Sorry, I can’t help but laugh every time you call him that.”

Mrs. Esther Cederhvarf with Her Son: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:Paintings by Magnus Enckell in the Finnish National Gallery" site=https://commons.wikimedia.org 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Yandex search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found, and once there find the text string Esther, and click its link for info and links that point to more info about this roughly jumbo envelope size painting.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2958 (July 12, 2022) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger if you trim what’s after .png from the URL). I have added a comment there pointing to the info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, 2 works have been used here. The December 7, 2020, strip has the prior (12/7 then, 7/12 now, or visa versa in Europe and maybe elsewhere: coincidence?).

With her son, Mahmoud. It’s not your grandfathers Finland.

Jacob’s tutor thought it would break the boredom if he dressed in drag, Jacob didn’t seem to notice.

Son … with your father no longer around, you have to be the man of the house.

Now sit up straight and uncross those legs! Who taught you to sit like that!