The 3-D Child

Love dies hard, but no doubt
it can shrivel into obsolescence
with enough abuse. Take the
parents of a child afflicted with
oppositional anomie, standing
out among her siblings for her
defiance, disaffection and
dissatisfaction with everything
offered in emotional security
and love, opportunities and
constant placatory attention to
her moody sullenness. There was
always hope she might outgrow
her passion for dissent, but
she was intent on fracturing the
bonds of love with one intimate
after another, all failures she
laid at her parents' trembling feet.
Faulting them and dredging her
memory for perceived slights
deserving of her accusing venom.
You'd think elderly parents would
finally understand the sad
pathology, but no, sadly they
kept returning with hope, then
retreating in confusion even as
they treated her with the exquisite
care given a favoured exotic plant
while she reciprocated, viewing
them as noxious weeds to be
destroyed; lesson never learned.