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