“The marks humans leave are too often scars. You build a hideous minimall or start a coup or try to become a rockstar and you think, “They’ll remember me now,” but (a) they don’t remember you, and (b) all you leave behind are more scars. Your coup becomes a dictatorship. Your minimall becomes a lesion.”
― John Green,  The Fault in Our Stars

The Unlived Lives of the Parents
by Carl Josehart

the unlived lives of the parents
will be visited on the children
unto seven generations

failures
chances not taken
talents lacking
born too late
original sin
inherited

unrealized hopes
fantasies
shards
discarded fragments
holy ashes
residue from sacrifices
made on
altars of propriety
sensibility and
good common sense

seeds sown in anger
despair
plowed under
yield bitter fruit
lost harvest
rotting on the vine

You might also appreciate Family