3 Poems
I
on weekends my father
worked for Luke Morley
at the corner grocery store
not for money but for conversation
communication he never had
with my mother
stacking shelves with canned goods
coming home with his reward
a pack or two of Pall Mall cigarettes
sitting alone staring out the window
smoking a cigarette
the ashes falling in the ash tray
like bits and pieces of his life
II
when I was a kid
my mother would bring
me home hard candy
from the nearby candy store
she worked part time for
now it’s Hershey kisses
that help keep the
blues away
a substitute for
a lover’s kiss
89 miles North
of San Francisco
love comes in
many different flavors
And I wonder which one
She is savoring tonight.
III
I turn on a baseball game
on TV
and Barry Bonds is giving
an interview
and in the background
players are shagging fly balls
and I’m back in Golden Gate Park
and my father is hitting me pop ups
which I’m to catch in my newly bought
first baseman’s mitt
and I circle around
reach up, misjudge the descent
and it hits me flush in the face
and I drop the glove and start crying
and my father yells at me
to put the glove back on
my mother comforting me
as my sister, always the tom boy
runs out and picks up my glove
and tells my father to hit one
her way which she catches effortlessly
and I see the proud look
in my father’s eyes
the penance 1 paid
all the years into adulthood
a heavy weight laid to rest
beneath six feet of cold, hard earth
Page(s) 28
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