Inventing Friends

My son is inventing friends

Who break things

That aren’t broken

Last week

There was the older boy who broke his toy train and

Yesterday

There was a little girl

Who broke the baseboard heater in his room

After she broke it

He took her home in the car

Maybe he feels bad

About the pile of broken things on my workbench and

Is confident that

Even daddy

Can fix broken things that aren’t really broken

Maybe he likes a happy ending

Maybe he just needs to get out more

Avocado

Chopping avocado
Incognito
As she talks
As we talk
I cut and
She still hasn't noticed
I might just get the whole avocado in the salad before she does
Before she sees
The avocado that she asked to have some of
Not ten minutes earlier
I might but
She's telling her story and
I'm chopping avocado and
Listening

A Bigger Boat

He refuses to pee in anything but his diaper and

A very small plastic sailboat

If the promise of

Stickers

Candy

Toys

Telescopes and

Hermit crabs

Continue to fall short

We may need to consider

Sanctions or

Force or

We might just need a bigger boat

In Her Room

My daughter has a moon in her room

Battery powered

Capable of showing all the phases

Mounted to her wall and

Now

After a year

We have paired it with a calendar of the moon’s phases

So that each night we can set the moon

To look just like it does outside

I have been threatening to do this for some time and

Every time I mentioned it

My daughter would say

Daddy

Why don’t we just look outside

Tonight

Lying in her bed

The moon in her room just starting to show again

The stars glowing on her ceiling and

All the recognized planets glowing and

Hanging over her bed

She asked me if we could go outside

To double check

She’s also wants me to show her

Why Pluto is no longer a planet

Maybe

It’s time to start camping

Unintentional Proof

It is eleven thirty at night when I see

Two cups in the freezer

One full of only water

Frozen solid

One full of salt water

Equally frozen and

I wonder if this is the hypothesis I was hoping to prove

When I placed the cups there

To much fanfare among the five and under set

Seven hours ago

Scientific Exploration

Snowflakes have six sides

If you want to see for yourself

Get a reliable forecast of snow and

Put a piece of black construction paper in the freezer and

Wait until something actually starts to fall

Until it just starts to fall

Then run out there with your piece of paper and

A kid

Without a kid you're just a weirdo standing outside with a piece of paper

With a kid

Find a flat surface and set down your piece of paper and

You will be able to confirm that

Snowflakes have six sides and

That they have rather short lives and

That for some reason

Each of us must learn that for ourselves

Brain Squeeze

They say a brain is like a sponge and

I guess it is more a sponge than a castle

Most do seem to have a maximum holding capacity and

Not much more than the illusion of impenetrability but

Have you ever tried to squeeze yours out to make room

Has your brain ever dried out

Grown mold

I can't speak for anyone else but

I think I'd rather think of my brain as a beach

Sometimes built up

Sometimes washed away

Often littered with who knows what

From who knows where

At the mercy of

The phases of the moon and

The whims of weather and fisherman

They can say all they want about sponges

But I'll take wind and rain over a giant disembodied hand

I'll take it and

I'll think it

Until someone squeezes it out

The Winter Refrain

Shovel

Sweep

Wait

Repeat

Not Yet

It’s January 20^th

Almost January 21^st and

The rumor of snow is swirling in the air

Not the real stuff though

Not yet

Not yet has been the refrain all winter

Not yet is what I told my daffodils

When I first saw them

More than two weeks ago

Not yet

Never yet and

Yet

I might be through with not yet

That and dance clubs and

Board books

I’m starting to hear whispers of not at all

I was starting to be OK with daffodils in January

In a mild

Wet

Winter

With nothing but sun and rain in the ten day forecast

But suddenly

The rumor of 1-3 inches

Is in the air but

Followed by a wintry mix and

Temperatures in the fifties and

January 21^st is still almost hear and

I’m still waiting for it

Not yet ready for it or

The 22^nd or

23^rd or

24^th either

Maybe next month

On the 2oth or

21^st or

29th

I will be

Flying

Flying

Her

Off the end of the balance beam

Him

A plastic plane up my back

That is just right now

Another moment

It may be a little helicopter with life like moving blades or

A stuffed turtle off the stairs or

One of the two of them

Off the couch or

The bed or

A table

Flying

Always

Everything is flying

Falling

Until

It's not

Me and Thomas

The Railroad tracks form an oval shaped ring around the coffee table

Thomas is still

Silent

Just staring out from behind a table leg

Straight ahead

Smiling

Unconcerned by his lack of motion

The curve he is about to be thrown

When the power goes back on or

The lack of real options ahead and

Sitting there

Feet on the coffee table

Writing this down

I am envious

Shopping in the rain in January

He’s crouching inside the cart

She’s up against it in my shadow

We’re a mass of umbrellas and winter coats

Contentment is

Contentment is

Heading into the kitchen

To get

More cereal for number two

More milk for number two and

Still more milk for number two

Cereal for number one

More milk for number one

Water for number two

Orange juice for number two

Napkins for number one and

Not feeling silly or used

Contentment is not an every moment or

Everyday thing

But often it has curly hair and

Sometimes it has an impish smile and

Says poopie

And says it a lot and

Sometimes it even lasts through lunch

Parental Guilt -or- Why I take Quick Showers

For half an hour or so every morning

My kids sit

Or stand

Silently

And nearly motionless

On the couch

While

Dinosaurs

Monkeys and

Talking cats wearing hats

Sing

Dance

Perform and

Even hypothesize

Leaving little room for anyone else to do much more than sit

Someone is Watching

I took a day off of laundry

Leaving the drying rack up

So that tomorrow I could pick up where I left off but

She beat me to it

Festooning the rack with

Pirated newborn onesies

Bandanas

Wash cloths and

Doll clothes

Some on doll hangers

Pans filled with wooden vegetables on the floor of the kitchen

Fairy boxes filled with expired coupons

Dollies strapped into car seats laboriously placed all over the car

Stuffed sheep in timeout and

Now miniature clothes

Neatly spaced and

Carefully hung

Surely

Someone is watching

Trouble in the Chinese New Year

It’s almost time for the Chinese New Year and

We’re in trouble

Pan fried fish means that luck is coming

I have gastrointestinal reflux disease and am avoiding fried foods

So it doesn’t help that fried rice symbolizes harmony and plenty

Chinese cabbage represents wealth

I’m avoiding cabbage too

Pork brings wealth

We don’t eat the other white meat

Duck represents happiness

If I could take the complaining I could be happy

My son would be in trouble

Of course he would miss out on

Good luck and good fortune (steamed buns)

Wealth and abundance (shrimp)

Surplus (sweet and sour fish)

Profit and good omens (Clams)

The fulfillment of wishes (mandarin cakes)

I don’t know what a Mandarin cake is but I’m sure he wouldn’t eat it

A sweet new year (puffed rice cakes) and

A happy new year (seaweed)

The only thing we can hope to enjoy as a family in the new year

Is an offering for the Kitchen God

Since that comes is associated with candy

So happy new year and

Here you go Kitchen God

Christmas Lights

We have left our Christmas lights up longer this year

We’re more than a week into January and

Still every night

I send the kids to the front door

While I head out back to plug in the lights and

Then race back inside to get the thumbs up

Last January

When I took the lights down

All on my own

I was rewarded with tears

This January

There is no snow

No snowmen

No snow angels

No sledding in the snow

There hasn’t been a hint of snow since Halloween but

The lights still go on every night to cheers

The presents are opened

Jesus is born

The shepherds and the wise men are gone

Jesus is gone

The lights are still one

I might leave them on until February

Greener Grass

I’m in front of my computer

With my eyes closed

Picturing myself somewhere else

Specifically

Sitting criss cross applesauce

In the middle of an empty stretch of blacktop

Stretching straight out in either direction to the horizon

Floating an inch or two off the blacktop

Floating because I need to be centered but

The yellow line looks so bright

That I wouldn’t want to sit on it

For fear that it was newly painted

Floating so as to avoid having tumbleweeds stuck in my ass

Floating because otherwise

The chair I’m sitting in is more comfortable and

I don’t have a smart phone yet

The Here and Now

I choose a piece of fruit

I eat it

I go back to what I was doing

The whole process takes about ten seconds

I barely remember eating the banana

Apple

Pear

Bunch of grapes or

Dried persimmon

So sometimes

After a productive pause two

I’ll take another fruit break

Occasionally I eat until I don’t feel good

Today

I started in on a banana

Right after dinner

A big dinner

Then I stopped

Took a few more bites

As I checked e-mail and

Set what was left aside

That was an hour or so ago

It was right where I left it until a few minutes ago

When

After reading

Singing and

Blowing kisses to my son

As I do every other day when I put him down

I finished it off in a few bites

I may have even tasted it this time

Then I sat down and write this

Which is where I am right now

Where I’ll choose to be for at least a few more minutes

It continues

Coats hats gloves and scarves

Hiding us from the cold air

Trees out on the curb

Hopping Glad

He jumps

And talks

At the same time

Not every time

But at least once a day

For a short time

And often

But not every time

I jump

And talk

With him

He tells a story

Face full of a smile

And feet off the ground

I listen

Smiling

With my feet off the ground

How could I not

How could I sit and listen dispassionately with my feet flat on the ground

Every time

Any time

He jumps

So do I

Because it will only be this way

For a short time

Babies have it almost right

Babies have it almost right

It is all about the box

But it’s not about the opened box

Just as the best moment of a football game doesn’t come after the final whistle

But just before the coin goes into the air

After someone has called heads

Or tails

And has taken a break from breathing

Just as one does

Whilst staring at a box sitting just a few inches away

Full

Closed

Wrapped and

Ribboned and bowed

But you have to open a lot of gifts

To reach the place where you are ready

To give full credit to the unopened box

Which is why

Babies have it almost right