Father, Mother and Karin Poem by Sabine Scho

younger child of two.
Father owns a factory.
Mother looks after the household.
The parents own a house in the country.
Karin grows up in harmonious surroundings.
They take the time to devote to the precocious child
most of the attention she needs, because
that, says her father, will really pay off later. Karin shows
great intelligence and is especially gifted in logical thinking.
She reads early and a great deal and is full of ideas about what she wants to do
when she grows up
Karin's body has
all the characteristics of early development of excessive height.
If she cannot be described as leptosomic, that's because of
her muscular build and broad shoulders. Her posture
is graceful, controlled, sometimes she likes to pose, tends to role play.
Aware of the effect of the way she presents herself, she's constantly
drawing people's gaze. Her expression is quick. She fights
a lot with her older brother. Who, says their father, should never
have been born, at least not as a man.
Their parents, still young,
want a third child
or later on at least a proper son-in-law.
A man of today who can run the business and have something to offer
Karin. Karin could help out in the firm, doing the books and
the foreign correspondence, because the idea is to expand.
And maybe the boy will study law some day, says mother,plac-
atingly. So that she won't hate the men whose shirts she irons.
That, says father, Karin still has to learn.

Translated by Catherine Hales