Ending a conversation about opposites

 It begins shortly after I serve my two boys
a plate of white cookies and some chocolate milk,
while I’m dipping my burnt whole wheat crackers
 
(the English call Melba toast and sell to us suckers)
 
into chick peas I could have squashed myself,
 
(but purchased as hummus instead)
 
when the questions appear about opposites,
but quickly become infected with laughter
 
(in between chewing [...]

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Robot inventory in the middle of serious writing

 In comes Alexander,
5, uninvited to my
office where I write
and where he’s
supposed to knock
instead of storming in
like his namesake would.
 
“Want to hear about
my robots”, he asks
spilling a half dozen
mini sculptures made
of multi-colored legos.
 
Not right now, I said
and firmer than it sounds
on paper.
 
But he goes on
explaining that the
first one with wheels
is a rover meant
to explore [...]

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Tiger logic

Excuse me,
I’m a tiger
says my youngest son
crossing the kitchen.
 
He knows enough
to crouch low
and settles down
safely sitting behind
the breakfast table.
 
I flip the pancakes
as the bubbles pop
silently through the
hot batter sprinkled
with cinnamon that
fills the morning air.
 
Excuse me,
once again,
says the tiger,
but as you know
if you keep turning
your back to me
I will have [...]

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explaining the death of two icons to my son

In one day two icons are gone
I tell my son – the king of pop
and the queen of the pinup.
 
We stop for gas and I talk
to a lady filling up and
almost make her cry by reminding
her of song titles and
the single sequined glove.
 
I give her my copy of a “Best of” CD
I have in my [...]

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After Father’s Day

I helped my sons
a few weeks ago
make a card with
flowers cut from
colorful construction
paper and peppered
with pictures of
them being cute
as babies can be.
 
Today is supposed
to be my day
and I expect to
be doing many
more things to
show them how to
be good boys and
maybe great men.
 
There is no sunshine
again but the rain
has taken a break
when we go out
my boys [...]

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Yard work

 Half an hour now
I have been promising
to join my sons in
building a fort in the corner
of the yard.
 
This is Gabriel’s last summer
before he turns ten
and the fort is mostly
his idea, and he is
the most committed.
 
Alex, half his brother’s age,
is the “go-fer”
and when he has
no clear command
directs his attention
to fighting everything
he imagines is [...]

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the words escape me

today the words
are not cooperating
it is like they are reverting
to their feral state
in my mind
they bite at their leashes
gnaw off their limbs
until they have chewed themselves free
of my memories
and run off into the darkness to hide
and wait in ambush until
i go hunting for them again
 
it has been like this lately
 
i have been pulling out old
photographs as evidence [...]

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7 or so

I was seven or so    
     when I awoke
     to the first time
I thought
 
 

     I was hearing
my father’s laughter
cracking
the air with hiccups
and high pitched yelps
like I made
 
 

     when someone was tickling me
and I just couldn’t catch
my breath

I heard my father
 
 

     and imagined him
     bent over so much that
it made me smile
 
 

     and I jumped out of [...]

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Why Oscar lives in Omaha

No one in the state house intended this
     and Oscar had never heard of Nebraska
     before he was heading there with his father
who seemed to talk
the whole way
about how he had tried
to make Oscar understand
how awful his own childhood had been
repeating how he had left everything behind
     to come to New York
     to make money
     but [...]

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an open letter to my sons

for Father’s Day, in memory of Tim Russert
In case the world should end
before I can tell you everything
I hope when that time comes
You’re old enough to know –
          I was just a man,
          Like both of you, but less.
Much less, and more at once, too.
The times we had together
So much you don’t recall,
Cannot be expected [...]

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