Much like the exasperated father/Father
who has taken to watch his children from afar
at times I found some gravitas in our daily life
and I sucked it all out of you with a bendy-straw.
At times, you’d think to yourself that
these were all the signs: of growing up, perhaps
but you just smile so your children smile back
and when they make a mess you draw them close
slap them lightly on the wrist and whisper affection-
ately “you naughty child,” while something whispers
back at you- maybe it’s the age of innocence
or the face blank as slate but something urges you
slaps you pushes you away and tries
to choke out the chance that you’d have to think
that forever. The only constant is change
and the reserves are running dry, it hints in-
advertently. “You’ll clean that up before you
leave,” it whispers and you find yourself grabbing
onto it like a bolster unwilling to let go, much
like a child to a father before work in the mornings
fearing the departure expecting eagerly the return
but never really knowing why