down the side aisles

 I’m the kind of father
my father would have been
had he lived long enough
to have full-grown children –
covering my daughter’s shoulders
with my suit jacket,
protecting her from the cold wind;
strolling the baby
up and down the side aisles
in the church during the rehearsal
to keep her quiet and calm;
picking up the lunch tab
and the dinner tab and . . .
Yes, I’m the kind of father
my father would have been
had he lived long enough,
and I have to say
I am proud of him.

822 miles in three days

Do you think all this driving
has made me stronger,
tougher or simply more achy and sore.
I’m going fast, 60, 70, 80 miles
per hour, but is that truly necessary?
Does it get you further faster
in the end? No, of course not,
but it’s hard to avoid it,
getting home a mere half-hour
earlier makes all the difference
in the world.

gloves and coat, scarf and boot

 Dizzy from shoveling
heavy wet snow
leaving a third of the turbid driveway
unshoveled, thick, frozen,
stiff as a starched white shirt.
I return inside, remove
my gloves and coat, scarf and boots,
lie down heavy as a polar bear
onto my wife’s comfortable sofa
until the damn dizziness passes.
(Should I worry about this,
I wonder. I am, after all,
at that heart attack age.)
“Leave the rest of the driveway,
Honey, it’ll be fine,
supposed to be in the 50s tomorrow.”
But I can’t, simply cannot
leave the job undone,
slip out later after dinner
one more time clad
in gloves and coat, scarf and boots
to finish the driveway,
from top to bottom,
as if I’m trying to dig my way
clear across to the South Pole.

Clear, Clean, Sweet, Pristine Beginning

 Six months young,
so clear, clean, sweet, and pristine,
no scars over her lower back
from dorsal lumbar spinal fusion surgeries,
no scars in the front
from hernia operations,
no scar on her forehead
from falling off her bike
and cracking her head open
on the damn concrete curb, no scar
across her lip because she tried to shave
with her mom’s straight razor when she was 5,
no need for reading glasses
or for wrinkle creams or teeth whitening gels.
We’ll have to check in again
50 years from now to see how she’s doing,
see how she has faired
after meandering along life’s
unpredictable pathways
for awhile.

©Michael Estabrook 2005

 

'Empty-nesting here in Acton, Massachusetts, with the last child off in college leaves me some time (between work and going to school myself) to finish about a thousand poems begun over the past couple years; also trying to get a real book of poems published, entitled “A Superlative Woman” (about my wife).'  Email : mestabrook@comcast.net

 

                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                  top