When The Milk Goes Bad (An Empty Nest Poem)

When The Milk Goes Bad

By Mark Ford

02-04-15

When the milk goes bad,

And the laundry’s all done,

That’s when you know…

The kids are no longer at home.

So we sit in the fam’ly room watching TV,

But I look at her while she looks at me,

And that’s when we know…

The chicks have all flown.

We’ve heard this was coming for many a year,

People older than us, would talk of their tears.

We knew…

That one day our work would be done,

And our children would truly be gone.

Only one person knows just how this all feels,

Only she shares the same exact cost.

Our children have left us; it’s all very real,

Together we manage our loss.

So now I am blue, though I’m proud of them too.

One off at college, the other just married,

Yet wasn’t yesterday when, we tucked them in bed…

And waited to be the tooth fairy?

This all sounds so sad,

And now I feel bad,

But inside I do know it is true,

While yesterday’s over and will not return,

Tomorrow, good things are born new.

So when we buy milk,

From this point and forward,

We’ll look for a smaller amount.

And when kids come home, though just for a visit,
We’ll make every bit of it count.