Children & Parenting
One Child
I hope it will be said we taught them to stand tall & proud, even in the face of history & the future was made new & whole for us all, one child at a time.
No Regret
I sometimes wake in the early morning
& listen to the soft breathing
of my children & I think to myself,
this is one thing I will never regret
& I carry that quiet with me all day long.
Neighbors
When we lived in the city we used to leave the lights on
to keep away the burglars. Now we leave the lights off
to keep away the neighbors. My mom says it’s because
there’s always a chance we’ll like the burglars.
More Than a Princess
Are you a princess? I said
& she said I’m much more
than a princess,
but you don’t have a name
for it yet here on earth.
Morning
Standing by the window watching his father go off to run the world.
Morning Person
I wouldn’t mind being grownup,
she told me, if I didn’t have
to get up & be grumpy
right away every morning.
Mixed Up
Why do you tell the truth? my son asked
& I thought about it for awhile
& finally I said, Because human beings
get mixed up easier than
dogs & plants & fishes.
What if you’re someone who doesn’t
get mixed up? he said. Go ahead & lie,
I said & then I hit him with a pillow
just because I knew he was thinking about
doing that anyway.
Making Sense
Hasn’t started to make sense of the world yet but thinks it’s beautiful all the same.
Magical Beast
this is a magical beast
that holds the secret of
light & shadow
in a safe place
in her heart
& when it has been
too long grey,
she starts to dance & laugh
& cry & sing
& the sunlight fills her up
& spills in wild abandon
back into the world again
Magical Beast (remix)
this is a magical beast
that holds the secret
of light & shadow
in a safe place in her heart
Losing Battle
I mainly like life to be peaceful
with a few loud noises thrown in
to remind me to be grateful
for the quiet I have, he said.
How is it going so far? I said
& he shrugged & said
he had children
& that was enough for me
to buy him a beer.
Lost at the Fair
When I was 5, he said,
my family forgot & left me at the fair.
I wandered around in the bright sounds
& smells of hot sawdust & cotton candy for hours.
It was already too late by the time my parents found me.
I haven’t been fit for decent society since.
Lemonade
It’s a nickel a glass, he said, because I can’t charge that much since I ran out of sugar & I asked if he’d had many customers & he said not yet, but he sure hoped so because he didn’t want to have to drink the whole thing himself. It’s a refreshing change, he said, but I think too much will make you sick.
Laughter & Noise
There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise.
Kid Games
One time I was standing on a corner in Chicago & a man stopped his car & asked for directions to a place I knew & I said that’s too easy, ask me something harder & he yelled & said he wasn’t playing games kid & then he drove off & I think about him sometimes & wonder if he ever got there.
Knowing the Score
No one really keeps score, but if they did, we would’ve won 5 to 2.
Just Weeds
running wildly into the spring wind chasing down all the dandelions before they turn into just weeds in a couple of years
Inventing Evil
He said who invented evil? & I said I wasn’t sure anybody invented it, it just happened when somebody got tired of all the effort it took to live right. They probably didn’t have anyone to teach them, he said & I thought to myself, we might be doing this right after all.
Invention
I always wanted to invent something that would move around & make funny noises & would change the world as we know it & I forgot all about that until we had kids & now I see I came pretty close.
Invisible
What are you doing? I said. I’m invisible, he said, Do I have to spell everything out for you all the time?
& since he was invisible, I decided I could ignore that.