Snack Cycle

Fridge
Plastic Bag
Grapes
Water
Grapes
Vines
Trash
Repeat

Now I want to visit Metuchen

Metuchen
Next stop
Car 1519
You must walk up
Towards the front of the train
To exit
Next stop
Metuchen

Opportunity

A lot of stores seem to be open at night
When you can see them
Through the windows
Of a moving train

The Day After

Not yet nine in the morning

And everyone was over there

Dad

Brother

Sister

And Friends

All familiar cars

But three or four more  than normal

For nine in the morning

And the talk and laughter was

More than normal too

It hadn't been very festive around there in months

Years

So I wasn't surprised when he came over 

And asked me to save Thursday's newspaper

Just before noon

Thanks Dad!

I‘m a child of the satellite age

I’ve never relied on the North Star to get where I wanted to go and

I’ve never pinned my hope on breadcrumbs to get back

I do have several compasses

They are some of my favorite knickknacks to set around on the shelves and

Pull down and dust off every so often

To teach the kids about directions or

Robert Peary and Frederick Cook but

The GPS is more helpful getting out of Philadelphia and

It is a great teaching tool too

Cartography

Electronics

Space and

Keeping your cool

When it tells you to take a right turn

Only to request urgently

Almost frantically

That you take the nearest safe u-turn

My kids will have their own tools and

Mine and

I hope my kids learn how to make use of all of them

In whatever way they can and

In whatever age it is they come into their own in and

That they realize that the bird food and the dead suns are the easy part and

Most importantly

That I can help them find their way to where they want and need to go

In the way you have helped

Me

Child of the satellite age

Child of my dad

Pause

Do you linger

After you’ve been soaked by an unexpected rain

Before you start thinking about dry clothes

Do you feel

Wet

Do you feel

Grace

Maybe July

I’m sad

Because

It’s raining

And not snowing

So I can’t go sledding

Make snowballs

Throw snowballs at my sister

Shovel

Drink hot cocoa and

Sleep without my air conditioner

Which makes it cold

But not cold enough for me

Not cold enough for snow

Not in June anyway

Maybe July

By Wyeth and Daddy

New-ish House

Unfinished basements

Hardwood floors under carpets

An attic that could be an office or a bedroom

Clean fresh walls hiding under wallpaper

Clumps of overgrown bushes scattered around slightly less than an acre

Endless potential

Limited budget

Valentines

It’s

Two days away

Making cards with dada

For

Grammy and Poppy

Grandma and Granddad

Valentines for school friends are already done

Initialed

Rubber banded

Ready to go

Ready to give away and

We’re

Ready to fill the next two days with

White

Pink

Red

Rectangles

Circles

Hearts

Love

Two days

One Day

The Day

Every day

-By Wyeth and Dad

Haiku With Wyeth

Alphabet Blizzard

Letters falling down

Like the snow outside but with real

Accumulation

Cheese Cheese Please

My cheese cheese has stripes

I eat it at dinner time

In every season

Train Ride

I have a ticket

Choo choo and clicekty clack

Riding down the track

Tonight

Tonight
As we decorated the house with
Santas
Snowmen and
Baby Jesus Christs
My kids
Played with their
Little People Christmas Story Nativity Scene Playset
Wondering out loud who the queen was and what she had to do with
'The Lord G' and
Then they played the sleigh game
With my son riding on the couch
Santa hat on his head
Pretending to whip my daughter
Who was Kneeling in front of the couch
Wearing reindeer antlers and
Answering to the names of each of the reindeer
One after the other
The future might belong to God and his chosen people
But Rudolph and the boys reigned supreme
Tonight

Seasonal Change

She is in school all day now and
He is there two and a half hours a day
Three days a week
My birthday has past
Only one year left between me and forty
The cat is looking more bedraggled and skinnier than ever
As he enters his fifteenth year
Worn down by the love of a three year old
The air is really only colder at night
Now
But the message has certainly been received and
While it might just be that I too am skinnier and
More bedraggled
Than ever
Due to the love of a six year old and
A three
Now almost four year old
I'm shivering
All day long but
Most especially for
Two hours each morning
Three days a week

Farther Away ... A Feeling

She's feeling further away

Already

I need the zoom lens to find her

More often than not

She'll still jump into the camera but

Now I erase the blurry photos

I can 

Imagine when blurry photos will make it into the album

As artsy

As all there is

So maybe I should 

Keep taking all I can now

While it's just a feeling and

Still farther away

Throw away the script

You think there's a script
Really
So someone wrote in
"And now he will begin to lick his lips
Often and
Excessively
Everywhere he goes"
If so
It doesn't seem as
Frustrating or
Cute
And why did he have to pee on me when he first did the other thing on the toilet
When I think that it is all improv
I'm OK with it but
I know I'm not living through a Hollywood blockbuster
An indie or
Even a horrifically bad B-movie and
I guess I've just never been the sitcom type

Quiet Doesn't Clean Up

Underwear on the kitchen floor

A smattering of cheese and corn and cheerios here and there and

Everywhere

Measuring spoons in the car

Rocks tumbling out of the diaper bag

Blankets covering the coffee table and rocking chair

A stuffed turtle in with the pots and pans

It’s kind of like scat in the woods

You don’t want to step on it but

I bring binoculars and a camera on my walks for a reason

Besides

Quiet doesn’t clean up

It's Happening

It had to happen

We had to put her in the stroller and

Bundle her up excessively

We had to erect every possible barrier that the stroller had to offer

Between the inside and

The world

We had to stay within quick sprint distance of the house

We had to be nervous

We had leave the house

So

I suppose

This has to happen too

Eventually

There are no home school fraternities and

I can’t hold her on my arm

Between my wrist and my elbow

Anymore

Of course

Right now

The burning behind my eye balls doesn’t stop

When I say

It has to happen

It had to happen

The Power of Sequels

Tonight

We ran

Together

Side by side

Me in front

Her in front

I ran backwards

She walked

I cajoled

We walked

We talked

She shuffled her feet

She asked questions

We anticipated running by her friend’s house

Who wasn’t home

And then

One mile

Was over

but

She pulled out her bike and

Tonight

We started mile two

nature slips in

At home

At night

I can hear crickets outside

Crickets are everywhere this time of year but

They are loudest

A few doors down

Where there was once a house and

Where there was once and

Twice

Within the span of two days

A fire

Followed by a year or two of neglect

Alternating with attempts at renewal

With a dumpster and a jackhammer and

Ultimately

Surrender and

A bulldozer but

Even all of that

Was not enough

Without neglect

To allow for the little glimpse of the countryside

I get every night as

I step into my finishing kick

On my way

Home 

Lucky

Now
He
        Falls into questions
Positions
Arguments and
Out
Easily and
I roll with it
If you're at a small
Clear
Flat
Lake and
The stones are skipping
I guess you throw
Stone
Lake
Man or
Boy
We're all there
We don't all need to be aware

The Perfect Moment

Not every picture

Can be perfect

All smiles

Centered and clear eyed

Without editing

Taken on the perfect afternoon

Under blue skies

Hair combed

Pulled back and

Neat

Face clean shaven

Everyone looking at the camera and

Wearing matching clothes

No

Every picture can’t be perfect but

Neither can every moment

So sometimes

Something has to give