Imprinting

If an egg falls out of a birds nest

It’s a serious matter and

Whatever you do

You mustn’t touch it

Unless you’re going to take it home and feed it through an eye dropper

Everyone knows that

Whether it’s true or not and

We don’t expect that the mother bird would take the baby back

Once it carries the stench of humanity

I always thought I was the mother bird or

At least a slightly self conscious human with an eyedropper

But today

After many many music classes

Family story times and

Other sundry and assorted group activities

He danced

Clapped and

Sang

For the entire time

For the very first time and

I sat and watched

Him and his sister

Finally out of school for the summer and able to come to his library class

Hold hands and

Spin around in a circle

Drop to the floor and

Jump up

In tandem and

Flap their wings

As if they were one giant bird

Falling and

Flying

All the time

Smiling back at me

Down at me

With much love and

Much amusement 

Thank You Amanda

Dad

Happy Fathers Day!

Thank you for always being Supportive of me and encouraging  me!

I hope you enjoy These Stories J

I love you!

This is exactly what Amanda wrote in the inside cover of

What is now my copy of

Chicken Soup for the Father’s Soul

Exactly

Right down to the odd capitalization and left out apostrophe and

It was still there when I picked it off the bookshelf

Where her dad left it after selling his house to my dad and

Mom and

It was still there when I took it home

After a long weekend of moving boxes

With my dad and

Mom and

I can’t help but feeling that

It was all a slow developing plan to get me to cry

Repeatedly

Mostly while sitting on the toilet

But some people give their matchbox cars to their kids to play and

Some give a few

Buy a lot and

Keep the best old ones wrapped in kleenex in a box in the closet

Which is why Amanda’s copy of

Chicken Soup for the Father’s Soul

Won’t ever make it to your nookshelf and

Why I’ll keep getting misty eyed

Sitting on the toilet

It’s all your fault

Thank You Amanda!

Perspective in Bloom

Right now is either

The height of the daisies or

Ten months to Tulips

New Smile

He's got a new smile
One that comes out for the camera
On command
You ask
He gives it
You take the picture
It disappears 


It's great for posterity but
Truth be told
Right now
I'm feeling nostalgic
For his hands over the face
Grunt and squeal reaction


Maybe I'll go now to the old pics and look for it

Shrugging Under the Weight of Authority

I would assume

That not many arresting officers

Receive that first phone call

Which might be why

Being the father of a three year old seems to me to be

Easier and

More rewarding than being a police officer

Being the father of a thirteen year old may be another matter altogether but

Right now he’s three

So when he tells me how mean I am

As he hugs me and

Dries his tears on my shoulder

It is hard to get too worked up about

The weight of authority

Empathy

Today

On television

We watched a little turtle

Dig for three days to emerge from her egg underneath the sand

Get stuck in kelp and

Dodge menacing crabs and diving sea birds

Simply to have the pleasure of

Being rocked about by the waves and

Perhaps being thrown back out on the beach

Then

After finding safety in a clump of seaweed

Floating in the Gulf Stream current

Get stranded in the Sargasso Sea and

Run over by a huge container ship

Then

After recovering for more than four years from that

Make her way back to the Gulf Stream Current

So she could be dashed against the rocky coast of Nova Scotia

And

All the while never change her expression

Which might explain why

Upon being told that I wouldn’t be giving him a boat ride today

My three year old son said

“I’m really pissed off”

Mixed Feelings

Arms wrapped around me

Holding on

Head on my shoulder

Sobbing

Talking in a whisper now

Still telling me how mean and rude I am

He’s either standing in bread lines in Moscow or

He’s just returned to his beach front home after a hurricane or a tsunami

Intent on crying

While he stares out over the water and into the hazy spot

Where sky meets water

It's All The Same

If you see someone you know

You say hello

If someone falls to the ground in front of you

You check to see if they’re alright

If someone says thank you

You say you’re welcome

If someone graduates from college

You say congratulations

If two people tell you they’re getting married

You say

Well

What do

You

Say

?

Empathy and Mos Eiseley

When that bully stole your Han Solo in 1982

Right out of your nine year old hands

He took more than Han Solo

He took the possibility of awkward moments with Luke and Leia

He took away fist bumps with Lando and

Chewbacca

Because it’s not just black guys that do fist bumps but

It is just guys in black vests that pilot the Millennium Falcon and

Run away from Boba Fett and

Slouch in his seat in the Mos Eiseley Cantina and

He can’t do those things outfitted for Hoth

In his winter parka

Not without placing an asterisk on the whole experience

Which I suppose is how she feels

About me being a stay at home father to her grandchildren and

And why she still feels that way after six years

Like Panda Baba watching his arm get cut off

And wondering how he’ll be able to be a smuggler now

Who are you?

Her cars talked to one another

Threw parties

Traded complements

Argued and

Were really dolls with wheels

She was clearly a girl

His cars act the very same way

He must be gay

I painstakingly invent little miniature people

Who drive the cars out of the parking garage

Across the railroad tracks

To the park to meet friends for a for a picnic

To the outskirts of town at night for a clandestine exchange of money for something less than legal

To the police station to engage in a confrontation with the police chief over the allotment of resources and the pace of the evacuation in the face of a hurricane scheduled for landfall in less than twenty four hours and

To the drag strip on the outskirts of town where the drivers get into groups based on the age and make of their car, play their music loud, try hard to impress the ladies, and haggle over who will race tonight and whether they will be racing for pinks

I’m not a girl

I’m not gay

I am clearly a stay at home dad with a law degree who has published his own book of poetry and grew up in a loving home in Flint, the birthplace of GM

Awake

No sheets or covers

Open windows but no breeze

Still in the darkness

Now

The sky is growing darker

More quickly than it should at eight o’clock

At the end of May

The wind is picking up too

I am raking gobs of smelly dirt and seedlings

Out from the gutters

As fast as I can

Without really falling off of the ladder

It has rained a lot over the last few weeks and

The trees in the gutter didn’t just appear but

Now

This rain on the horizon

Is one rain too many

I have to clean the gutters

Now

Inside I can hear my son

Demanding the phone

He lost three months ago

Now

I feel water drop on my arms

But it is only my own sweat

You

A picture of Shasta daisies hangs above my toilet

Purchased for two dollars at the thrift shop

Now they are in my garden too

Purchased for three dollars from the discount rack at Lowes

I bought the picture because

It made me think of Mount Shasta and

The first real camping trip I ever took  

With you

I bought the flower because they were on sale and

Not dead and

I like daisies

I wrote this poem

Shortly after midnight

Shortly after I realized that the daisies in the picture

Were the daisies in my garden and

Twelve years after our first date

Because I needed to write a poem on Monday and

I can’t go to the thrift store

Lowes or

To bed

Without thinking about you

Of culture and perspective

There is a silly band in the shape of a princess on my desk

It’s pink

Of course and

Every way I turn it

It is still pink and

It still looks like a princess

Even upside down

But

If I put it on its side

Head on the left

Dress bottom on the right and

Stare at it

With one eye closed and

My head tilted to the right

Then it looks like a hippopotamus

Wearing a princess dress

No Coaching Through The Glass

The sign says

No coaching through the glass

The sign that I ignore since

Ambition is not reality

I’m not Bela Karolyi and

It’s not a police interrogation room

At least not for me or

Her

No one is watching

For weaknesses to exploit

No one is waiting

At least not her or

Me

Even if there is

No coaching through the glass

Summer Hours

Bed at ten thirty
Rise at forty to seven
Its summer hours

We Shall Overcome

Hand in hand

Is how we used to sing

The ‘hand In hand’ verse of

We Shall Overcome

Under the artificial stars

Generated by the battery powered turtle night light

In blue

Always blue

We would join our hands

For the whole verse

After which he would continue to hold my hand

While he asked whether this was indeed what hand in hand meant

He still asks the same question

Yesterday he asked

After he took my hand back in his

After having dripped it

In order to make a diamond shape

With both of his hands

Today he just asked

Tomorrow

We’ll still sing the song

But maybe we’ll go with the

I am not afraid verse

Perspective

Clean clothing needs to be folded

Every bit as much as

Movies need to be made and

Diseases conquered

Says the person

Whose day revolves around folding clothing

Buckle Up for Safety

In order to keep her clothes clean at lunch time

She favors layers

Pulling on one of my shirts over top of her own

He takes his off and

Talks about dropping yogurt on his belly

He’s all talk

For once

Normally you can tell what flavor yogurt he ate just by looking at it

She has peanut butter on her forehead and

Elbow

Always

I’m just there

Today

Wondering if

Helmets and

Seatbelts

Are really worthwhile

Two Minutes

Two minutes

That’s how long before I should be in bed

That’s how long I have to spin out some profound statement

On life

Love and

The space in between

Oh it will take me ten or twenty minutes to do it and

I’ll be out some precious sleep

Without much to show for it but

For two minutes after writing it

 I won’t acknowledge any of that and

That’s the two minutes I want

To be in

So

That’s why

I stay up too long

To write this poem

Where are you now

Right now

Childhood is shivering under a table

Asking whether the dinosaur

You have just
Invented and
Identified
In a clearing between the bed and the dresser

Eats vegetables
He's looking right at you and
Wondering the same thing

Where are you ...

Childhood is shivering under a table

Asking whether the dinosaur

Dad has just identified over by the bed

Is a vegetarian

Or not

Where are you

There's Nothing Like The Smell of Failure in The Morning

I didn’t smile

Ask if he was OK

Tell him everything would be fine and

Reassure him that it was no big deal

 At least not right away

Faced with

Shit

Seeping out of his shorts

Onto his sheets

His hands and

The floor

Shit he had woken up with and tried to pull off of his irritated rear

Shit I had unknowingly rubbed into the carpet

In the pitch black of this early May morning

When I laid him down to change his diaper

Faced with shit

I asked him why

I moaned

I gritted my teeth

I sighed

I sighed a lot

I implored him never to do this to me again and

I didn’t smile

Only Two More Days

Only two more days of five

Two more bowls of cereal

One of which will be the frosted mini-wheats I bought her today as a special treat

Two more drop offs at school

Two more opportunities to run late

Forget her backpack

Yell at her and her brother for leaving the house

Two more pick ups

Two more opportunities to ask her what she did today at music class or art class

While her brother sings or gets upset because she won’t listen to him

Two more lunches

Yogurt and

Something with peanut butter

Two more naps

Two more chances to listen to her read through the baby monitor

Two more homework sessions

Lasting ten seconds a piece

Too more days of games on PBS.com

Puzzles

Teaching the cat about adverbs

Gardening

Cooking

Eating dinner

And only one more nighttime reading of Mouse and the Motorcycle

One more performance of Aldi

Known to you as The Boxer

One more time to say

I love you

See you in the morning

And goodbye

Ten or twelve times

Amidst a smattering of kisses and

A lot of door closing

And then

It will be Friday

And there will be

Only three hundred and sixty four more days of six

Facebook and Remembering

I remember a sleepover and an aborted attempt to get up early and scare up mischief

He couldn’t wake me up

I can picture the crazy drawings she made me

And can remember looking for a penny so

I could ask her for her thoughts

I can still see all of them playing pool in my basement

Singing along with …

Well I’d rather not say

I still have the lion hand puppet she gave me

And can clearly remember walking hand in hand

With her and my mom

To kindergarten

In the shadow of a solar eclipse

It’s all there

And much more

Waiting for a door opened

By a post about her son in the boy scouts

His broken hearted adventure through the South

His partner’s sister’s baby

Or a picture of her face

Waiting

And waiting

With more hope than ever before

For whatever that’s worth

From Here to There

She asks me if we can go somewhere on July 14th

It’s just down the street she says

Sounds fine

That’s my reply

A birthday party for a three year old

In two months

Does sound fine

Right now

While I sit in front of the computer

Writing poetry

Later

However

It might not

Specifically

On June 13^th

It may well sound like a horrible idea

Which is to be expected

Otherwise

It wouldn’t matter where you sit at a concert

Or where you position your speakers in your living room

And those are things that matter

Or at least they are

Once the music starts

Which is why

In the silence of a quiet Saturday night

In late April

I am vaguely positive

The Moment

If it was a fondly remembered second cousin

You’d seek her out

In a new suburb outside of Phoenix

Where she’d moved after college and

Settled into a four bedroom

Three bathroom

House

In a new development

Where the houses are so close together

That despite the utter lack of trees or

Anything besides houses that might cast shade

She can only see stars if one of her next door neighbors

Has the leading role in the big summer blockbuster and

She’ll only hear a tidbit she can share with the tabloids

In order to earn a little supplementary cash

If she turns off her air conditioner and opens a window and

Then

Unfortunately

As the two of you caught up on old times

In her sitting room

Despite the ten foot high ceilings

You’d be covered in sweat and

Neither it

Nor this

Would turn out to be a memorable one

America

If you think you can put your hands on it

Read it to me or

Run it up the flag pole

Then you don’t have it

If you think you can find it with a gun

Then I hope you never do

If you think it’s fallen down from above

Like manna from heaven

Fully formed and ready to sustain us

Then you haven’t been in the kitchen yet and

I doubt whether you’ll be of much help if you ever make it there

If you think it’s that warm feeling you get in your chest

When you sing one of those songs

I’d like you to be right

I’d like to be there with you

One voice among many

Singing

Screaming

Dancing

Hands in the air

Eyes closed

Held in the cacophany

For always and ever

But I know I’d only last an hour or so

Before I’d want to

Listen to something else or

Nothing at all

Before I’d want to open my eyes and

Look for it somewhere else

If you think it can be wrestled to the ground

Bestowed from above

Discovered only in the faces and beliefs of some people

Measured

Dissected

Purified or

Who knows what else

Then I know that you’re wrong

Because

You think the fact that everyone is looking for it

Means that it can be found

Waiting For What

Rain is falling on

A forgotten plastic egg

Blending with my breath

Another Blip

Tree rings

Ice Cores

Space viewed through a powerful telescope

In any of these

I would be but a fleck of dust

At best

Only a part of a very brief moment in time

And yet I get antsy in line at the grocery store

When the person with two shopping carts full or groceries

Won’t let me and my three items and two children go first

Which I suppose is why folks reject a connection to apes and

Embrace the cross and the ark

Otherwise

How can you explain being pissed over having to wait ten minutes to buy milk

I can’t

But I don’t try

Which is why

An hour or two ago

Standing over my son on this

His first night in a big boy bed

I told him to stay in there until morning

Until someone could come up

And thought about recording this moment in some way

So that he could look back one day

And appreciate our history

A Dirty Tree

The Birch in my backyard is a very dirty tree

It drops several waves of stuff every spring

Seeds

Fruit

Snakey things

I don’t really know what they all are

But they drop in and on everything

And in the fall there are the leaves

And for all the trouble I am caused

I don’t blame the wind

Or Aphids

Or el nino

I blame the tree

Which is why

I should do something when my daughter pushes my son into the wall

Or one of them throws food

Or jumps on the couch

I don’t want to be

A dirty tree

In our backyard

In our backyard

There’s really nowhere to hide

At least not for someone who stands over six feet tall

Has not the least bit of flexibility and

Is playing with a three year old and a five year old

Let’s just say I will not be fitting into a leaf bag anytime soon and

I wouldn’t want to hide too well anyway or

At least I wouldn’t

Not without a fence stopping the three year old

From running right out into the street and

Without a sudden dispensation of common sense

At least enough to stop either one from doing something silly while

I waited in the perfect hiding place for them to find me thus

I try to crouch behind the arborvitae and

Skillfully try to stay on the opposite side of the Maple’s trunk

Even going so far as to put my shirt in one place and

My body in another

Despite the fact that I myself don’t have enough common sense

 Not to simultaneously wonder

What it would be like

To be in some other yard

At some other time

Even though

There’s a giggling bush

Right at my feet

In our backyard

Why it's important to monitor television consumption

He is still awake

Not because

Clifford and blue baby were involved in a fire fight

Nor because

He was trying to foil the evil plans of the plush Easter Bunny

Given to us by a neighbor

Who has since succumbed to cancer

He is still awake

Because

He had to divide

His stuffed turtle from

The little reindeer with the magnet in his nose and

He wanted to tell me that

Divide is the same as separate

I could do without baobob trees

I’m pretty sure that the baobob tree at the Philadelphia zoo is fake and

I’m OK with that as

Long as the fake one is at the zoo and

Not in my backyard

A real baobob tree in my backyard

Would be like a dream come true

Now I’m not sure if it would be my dream but

I can certainly picture myself underneath it

Sitting criss-cross applesauce

Wearing something white and billowy and

Watching goats and kids straggle by in the dusty heat

As I wait for others to gather

So that we can socialize

Chew on something tropical and/or

Messy

Like a mango or ugali and

Make important decisions affecting us all

Democratically and

In good humor

Then

Whistling something other than I’m Walking on Sunshine but

Similarly intentioned

I would head home to my multi-generational household and

That’s all I’ve got

That’s as far as I can get

Because the baobob tree is in Philadelphia

About thirty minutes away and

People don’t live with wild animals anymore

At least not very often or

In zoos and

Anyway

There won’t be any smiles

Mangos

Sunshine or

Even ugali underneath it

Regardless of where it is

Even if it is in your backyard

Blocking the light from your flowerbeds and

Hovering threateningly over your house

Very fake yet

Very very real

Why I've given up on travel

It’s been one hundred years since

My great-grandparents

Were told that they wouldn’t be able to use their tickets

Too many half fares for such an in demand voyage

So they had to wait

Had to be on one of the first boats to pass over

After

I think there was a wreath laid

And then on they went

To a new life

In the new world

Only too aware that

They would not have had this close call

Had there been enough money

To go to Australia

And that had there not been so many kids

I think eleven

Well

They one way or the other

They would have been down under

Which is why

One hundred years later

With a little more discretionary spending but only two kids

I like to stay at home

Communication

Holding his hand on his ass and

Bent over like an old woman

He walks across the playground towards me

Not a word is needed

Everyone knows what this is

Both of us know what will happen next

What questions I will ask

What answers he will offer

What will happen when we go to the bathroom

About how much time will pass before he is again

Lurching about like a golem or a hunchback

Holding his hand over his ass

Tree Climbers

Wow

They are tall

Tree climbers could climb these trees

Daddy

Right

They are tall

But tree climbers could climb them

I think

Not long branches

Yes

Tree climbers could do it

Still

All the way up

They would have to be safe though

Yeah

I would be safe

If I was a tree climber

I would be safe

Yes

Not all tall

But some are

Tree climbers could climb all of them

Yeah

They are tall

Yeah

a singer of songs

They always come out of my head and

To a spot somewhere directly in front of my face

A few words at a time

Each word appearing

A second or so

Before I have to sing it

Providing me a chance to

Give them each their due

To put them in their proper position in the world or

 At least that’s how I hope it goes but

It doesn’t always

Not even if I manage to clear my head of

Everything else

Even fantasies of playing point guard for the Detroit Pistons

As I did tonight

Tonight I was channeling Leonard Cohen and Jeff Buckley

I was shooting for perfection

I wanted every word in the right place and

Every note as close to where it needed to be as I could place it and

After one do over

I was doing it

I flubbed a little when she tied him to a chair and

Then

As I got ready to say “I’ve been here before”

I couldn’t remember being there before

I stopped and there wasn’t a sound

Until she broke in with “baby I’ve been here” and

I was there again

They were all there again

In front of my face but

Then I couldn’t see the flag on the marble arch either

Not until she showed it to me and

Then it was there again and

So now so was she

With a voice of her own

Six years in the making

So far

A voice

Reminding me that

The songs in my head

Aren’t just in my head and

Aren’t the only ones

Being sung

One

word

at

a

time

Right

in

front

of

my

face

Summer Necessities

I rise off the seat
Water rushing and swirling
Sweat on it and me

My Own Two Minutes

For almost two minutes

I’m alone

Showering

With

Michelle Williams

Dame Judy Dench

Stan Van Gundy and

An activist Supreme Court

The Justices disappear with the water but

Dame Judy helps me dry off and

Exits the bathroom with me

Before she too vanishes

Without having finished dispensing the sage advice

I just know she is full of and

Would gladly share with me

If she weren’t

So rudely and abruptly pushed aside by Curious George

Electric Spring

The long yellow cord

Wrapped up and around and in

The smell of the grass

Gardening at Easter

Is there an Easter Bunny

Of course there is

Who else but a bunny

Would be delivering candy and toys to you in your house and

Everyone else’s house

How does he carry everything

Well

Carefully

Magically

Quickly

I don’t really know

Why would I know

I mean all I know is that stuff arrives and

You should be happy to get it

Anyway keep digging

We have a garden to plant and

Before we plant it

We have to get this rabbit fence up

Just A Second

I’m coming

I just have to finish this thought

Then I promise I’ll

Scoop your litter

Wipe your ass

Check your homework

Let you out of the garage

Take you to school

Make your lunch

Open your granola bar

Kiss your boo boo

Reply to your text

Pretend to eat the plastic food you have brought me

Listen to the song about the snail and the chocolate cake

Accept your hug

Look you in the eye and

See you smile

If you become a crocus in a hidden garden ...

Keep planting things

That’s what I do

It’s all I do

If there is a space

Then I want to plant something there

If whatever I plant doesn’t take

For whatever reason

I plant something else

I don’t just plant

I water

I fertilize

I trim tree branches  

I Pull weeds

I watch and

I love every part

Although the planting is my favorite

I don’t use gloves

I want to be able to look at my nails afterwards and

Know that I’ve done the dirty work and

Done it right and

Know that something is growing where

Only a moment before

There was nothing

So that is why

Five plus years in

I am still plangting

Three's A Crowd

Daffodils are

Three for ten dollars

At the grocery store

So

When I go shopping today

With our son

I can buy granola bars and

Trail mix for him and

His sister and

I can buy daffodils

For you and

Two other people

Don't What?

You pretty much have to say it 

You are supposed to say it

And people are watching

Plus you mean it

So even though you know it won’t have the desired effect

Though you know exactly what he will do

And which smile he will give you

As he does it anyway

As he does it even more

And with considerable flair

You don’t really have a choice

You never really have a choice

You have to say it

You have to say

Don’t lick the wall

Don't Leave Daddy

Don’t leave daddy

Is what she says

Almost every night

When it is time for me to leave

When I have read the last book and

Sung the last song and

She has sipped the last sip of milk or

Water

She asks me not to leave

She asks me to stay and sleep up in her room

Sometimes she clutches my arm

In an almost serious attempt to get me to stay

Every time I try to insert a mental post it note

Marking that moment

So that later

I can come back to it and

Remember it and

Hear that little voice saying

Don’t leave daddy

Maintaining The Illusion

Out of the corner of my eye

It looks like a bracelet

Onyx

With sterling silver flowers and wiggles and

A sterling silver border

A cool and funky piece of jewelry

Shoved in my little odds and ends container

Along with random recipes

Empty index cards

The “solutions disk” for our new camera

A ruler

 And a book about the presidents written for children

Everytime I see it I wonder why it’s there and

Try to remember

What it really looks like

Until I do

Today it took about ten seconds and

I didn’t bother picking it up

Since I had nothing to cut and

Because

I kind of want to preserve the illusion for next time

Of turtles and quiet sharing

I praised the little green thing

Even rubbed his shell

But I still threw in a reminder for all of them

Stuffed and otherwise

That they were supposed to be sleeping

Or at least not sleeping quietly

The non-stuffed one groaned out an OK at this and

I understood why

I was even a little disappointed with myself

I mean

He had called me up

To say

That his stuffed turtle was sharing books with him and

I couldn’t allow myself

To just heap some praise on both of them and

Maybe say something nice about the little stuffed reindeer

With the magnetic nose

And disappear

No

I had to try to be parental

I tried to hide it

To slip it past in a flourish of fun and play

And blown kisses but

We all knew it was there

Even the turtle

Who has to be up there every night

With a pile of books

And a magnetic reindeer

And still has to share

Could see the praise for what it was

And I’m quite sure

He disapproved

The absence of accomplishment

Basketball
Hawaii 5-0
Mouthwash
Toothpaste
Light off
Night over
Completely satisfied
With all that
I didn't do

I hear the whispers

I hear whispers all the time

Not just when I am at home

At night

With the baby monitors on

I’m a man

A dad

I’m at home with the kids

All the time

I hear the whispers

All the time

Even if they’re not there

Of diapers and politics

My son woke up screaming from nap today

To be precise

He was screaming one word

Poop

Somehow between the tightness of the diaper and

The size of the poop

It was unable to come out

When I undid the diaper and

Lightly poked at the poop with a wipe

It came the rest of the way out 

He was left hoping that he could switch to underwear full time

Even while sleeping

I was left thinking about the state of politics in America and

Wondering who is going to loosen our diaper and

Poke at our shit

Eating Crow ... and Flossing Afterward

Just now I spotted my missing dental floss

Sitting on my desk

Way at the back

Next to the unopened package of mirror holders

That I was going to use to put up the mirror in our bedroom

The mirror that is now in the garage behind the closet doors

From my son’s room

That have been sitting there half primed for a week or two

Certainly longer than the floss has been sitting here

Where I left it

While I angrily tore apart the bathroom looking for where someone had hidden it

While I neglected flossing for three days

While I finally dug out more floss

Complaining all the time

While I sat down to write this poem and

Spied it

Just now I wrote a poem about my missing dental floss and

Now I’m going to go use it

No Reward

Today

Near the end of day two in underwear and

Peeing on the potty

My son turned to me and said

Daddy you should get M&Ms for using the potty too

I smiled and laughed but

Inside I agreed

I want a reward for things like

Tying my shoes

Counting to ten

Reading a whole book on my own

Eating my vegetables

Peeing in the potty but

Not M&Ms

I don’t like chocolate that much and

It’s no good for my acid reflux

What Passes For Success

It may sound strange but

Ten pairs of underwear in about two and a half hours and

The same number of shorts and pants and

A little red boat in the toilet

Was

Even without the knowledge that we made it to the end of the day

Without adding to the laundry pile

An unmitigated success

I'm not much of a gypsy

Gypsies are

Probably never sure where they’re heading either

Though I bet they don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it
As they sit around the campfire
Tongue clacking
Hand clapping and
Clicking wooden spoons

Gypsies don’t spend so much time

Thinking

Talking or

Researching on the internet about moving

They actually do it

Why I should write a book

The answers to all of your questions
Either
Aren't all in one book or
Aren't in a book at all
So
Either do a lot of reading or
Write a book

Unconscious Youth

Today

He was back in a sweatshirt and a jacket and

At the same time

Back at the playground

For over an hour

Stubbornly sticking to the idea of an early Spring

Without even realizing it

Peanuts in Context

Today we talked about his peanuts

Twice

Once while changing his diaper and

Once after nap

While he snacked on some trail mix

It really is true

Context is everything

Kinder ... garden

Pink shovel in hand

Dirt is flying everywhere

Winter coat stays clean

Rolling Through

I could only hear every other word

An empty bus isn’t a quiet place

Even if you aren’t sitting up above the wheel

If you are and

You are sharing the bus with twenty or so five and six year olds

Many of whom are shooting at you with their fingers

Well even if your hearing has always been good

You’d need the little boy sitting next to your daughter

To repeat his question

On the third go round

I went with Fred for my answer

I was throwing up my arms in surrender and

Being kicked in the small of the back

So when I heard the word name

That third time

I thought Fred would be a safe answer and

It did make him laugh

Albeit because he was expecting Ford or Buick but

My daughter gave him the right answer and

Sometimes a complete picture needs more than

Words

Every other or

Even all of them

Moving Out

He has his own house

He’s four and he has his own house

He still spends most nights with us

Last night it was because there was a fire at his house

Tonight he came back for dinner

Someday though

He tells me he’s going to move out

After he’s done marrying me

I’m first

Next he’ll marry his mother

Than his sister and

I think that’s when he’ll leave

When they’ll both leave

He seems to be planning for it already

Yesterday he threw a fit because I wouldn’t buy him a garlic press

Today the tears were over a Scott’s Edgeguard Mini Spreader

I told him that when he was ready to seed his lawn he could borrow mine

But he wants his own

Who knows what he’ll need next

Who knows when the day will come

When a granola bar won’t be enough to distract him

When macaroni won’t be enough to keep him home

Worn Out

I am buried in clothing

Purple plaids

Pink fish

Stripes of every color

Even red, white, and blue and

Right now

All of it is size 4

Size 5 is next

With a few size 6 items

Prematurely shrunk or

On the small size to begin with

Waiting on the far right of the coffee table

Just on the other side of a mound of hangers

On this side of the hangers

Where I sit

My lap filled with clothes

Debating with my wife

Whether the Kohl’s blue polka dot dress

With the green 3-d flower looking thing

Should go for four dollars or

Five with a last day half off discount

We decide on four dollars

No discount and

So it goes

She’s asleep and

Now it’s our turn to shed the clothing

One piece at a time and

All at once

What Did I Get Myself Into

Red and yellow kill a fellow

Red and black friend of Jack

I think that’s right

If it is

It’s a lovely little number with a fun rhyme but

How dead is dead and

What kind of a friend is Jack and

What if it isn’t right

What if I’m color blind

What if snakes really aren’t for everybody

These are the questions you hope you ask

Before you buy the snake or

Come face to face with it on some dusty trail or

At least you naively hope

That if you have let the spirit move you

You will have time to figure it out in the moment and

On the fly

That you will see the colors you wanted to see

Whichever colors those are

Unfortunately as

Much as red and black are friends of Jack

So too

Is it true

That it does go by so fast and

That it doesn’t last

Not for this or any other snake and

Not for this fellow

Proving It

He told me he loved me

His head on my shoulder

Then that deep giggle started

The one that sounds like it is coming from his toes and

He rolled his head back

So I could see his eyes twinkle and

His teeth disappear in an

I’m not smiling smile

Then he rolled close again

To squirm and squiggle and

Rub my eyebrows and

Demonstrate the importance of poop as a root word

From there he stood up in front of me

Commenced licking his hand and

Looked back to see what kind of reaction he was getting

I’d said me too

So I suppose now I was being put to the test

What a dime can do

I buy him a 10 cent ball at the thrift store

He smiles

He bounces it for a minute at home and loses it

He stops smiling

In a few weeks someone will find it and give it to him

He will smile

He will bounce it all over the place again

In a minute or an hour or a week he will lose it

He will shed some tears or at least moan a bit

He will smile when again it turns up

And so on

I think it goes to show that a dime can still go pretty far