Father to Son - Post Reading Task

Listen to Linkin Park's 'Numb'. Although Numb was written for an entirely different purpose, we can try and read the lyrics almost as a response by the son, to the father in Elizabeth Jenning's poem.

The father in the poem complains that his son has changed. He is no longer the boy he used to be. Perhaps the son would say:

I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface
Don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes

Every step that I take is another mistake to you

The father in the poem says that the child is built to his design. The son would reply:

I've become so numb, I can't feel you there
Become so tired, so much more aware
I'm becoming this, all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

The father in the poem is afraid to let go. He wants his son to stay with him. Even if the son were to explore the world like the prodigal son, the father hopes that the son would fail and finally realise that home is where he wants and should be. The son might have replied as follows:

Can't you see that you're smothering me,
Holding too tightly, afraid to lose control?
'Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you.
Every step that I take is another mistake to you.
And every second I waste is more than I can take.

And I know
I may end up failing too.
But I know
You were just like me with someone disappointed in you.

The son finally admits his inability to understand his own self and we see this reflected in the following lines:

I'm becoming this, all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you.