You’ve been nice to look upon,
but I’ll be happy when you’re gone.
Passing Time
Close to a friend,
but still pretty far.
You think that it’s your party.
We parents know it’s ours.
For we’re the one’s talking
and seeing eye to eye,
and you’re just making
the time pass by.
Menards
How tired you must be
of going to Menards.
Your parents go too often.
I know it must be hard.
Broken Corelware
Broken Corelware.
So that’s what it looks like. But perhaps I’ve seen that once before.
Once my dad broke his arm– I hadn’t known that could happen.
And then the other day I read the blog of two classmates
who were popular in high school, and it turns out
that they had to eat ramen noodles when they were first out of college
and now their child has autism.
The ramen noodles and the autism have nothing to do with each other.
What I am saying is that I thought they were invincible, I thought they were
shielded from all those hard things.
Maybe they thought that too, or maybe they knew the truth all along.
And it turns out I cried when I read about it.
I used to laugh at my mom for crying during movies
and stories and church
because I didn’t cry. But now I cry,
like broken Corelware.
Yes, What Fun
A desk, a shelf, and two shelves more,
two dressers and five different doors,
a hamper and another one,
the wall and door frames– yes, what fun–
the posts below the bathroom sink,
the toilet, tub… that’s it, I think–
you colored on them yesterday.
That’s why the colors went away.
Prize
Somedays you win a prize.
Somedays you earn it.
And some of those days you earn it,
you get it,
and some you earn it and don’t.
Someplace We Shouldn’t Have Been
The police thought
that we were burglars.
After, all, we were looking for something in the dark,
trying to get a good deal,
someplace we shouldn’t have been,
if only because
that’s not where the prize was hidden.