Good-for-nothing Love

PAD Challenge day 18: For today’s prompt, write a good for nothing poem.

Initially, I couldn't think of a topic when I saw today's prompt...

...but when I told my son (after he came home from a LONG overdue haircut)
 that I can look at him with motherly pride once again
he said, 'oh, so you only love me if I have short hair' to which I said,
"my love for you is the same no matter what your hair looks like;
my motherly pride, however, isn't" :)
(I simply like his hair shorter rather than a floppy mop, but that's just an exterior preference
which, I reminded him, is why I never told him to get a hair-cut because I wanted him to want it:)
...it got me to thinking,
Imagine if 'love' meant meeting full approval or
if it was gauged by circumstance!
What a good-for-nothing love that would be!

my  love for you
 has nothing to do
with meeting my approval
or with circumstance
if it were so
love would be a pitiful show
of word gymnastics
and clapping hands

(which is why I often sign my little messages to my children,
love always,
Mom )

Janet Martin