My thoughts on Manipulation

For a contest entry re: "Manipulation"

Manipulation

Manipulation...many years ago
it's meaning was just one!
That being the adjustments by a
doctor of Chiropractic, which was kinda fun.

By the 80's and 90's however
the meaning had expanded forever,
Targeting children and adults alike
who selfishly acted like little tykes.

The original usage is one I like by far,
for after a drunk plowed into my car,
my spine and neck were deftly changed
making them permanently rearranged.

Becoming a parent in the 1980's,
ushered me into the expanded bounderies.
How crafty and sly a child can be,
When not even old enough to read!

Then came the rantings in my ears
of my husband of three years.
Wanting no measure of responsibility
stated to me with much hostility.

I finally said "No More" to his childish
manipulation admonishments.
Out the door he quickly went,
with an address for his mail to be sent.

Life is too short to live like this,
the whining, the negotiating, always ready to diss.
Those endless "put-downs" if not compliant,
as for me, of husband #2 I have no complaint!