WE ARE HAPPY NOW
father’s day
19 June 2016-jdj
#1
The Pond –
You are still so young in this place in my mind
I am younger still, hardly a person, caught in
the faerie mind of the newly born and toddler
not at all concerned about any of those things that
will clog my mind as an adult, things
That at the end of the day were useless to take up
Space in my mind and heart and soul
That I am learning now…learning late, but learning
So there you are; young and strong and friendly
You are my father and I love watching you do anything
I am four-years-old and you must be forty or forty-one
Never mind that, you are digging a hole in our large and perfect
Backyard, and as you dig you tell me of your childhood
The sad childhood of the foster child who lives on
A farm in Glen Allen, Virginia during the depression,
Yet in that sad childhood you romped in the countryside and
Swam in a pond and to reinforce that memory of yours you are
Making a pond for me and my brother but not for swimming
But to send small wooden boats that you have made for us skimming
Across the water. Someday you say we will have a swimming pool
And be in the water all of the time. You kept that promise too
But today I sit on something, I cannot see it in my mind’s eye
and I sit and study you, watch you dig and listen to your
Stories of the sad boy in Virginia, but you don’t tell
Them sad, you are matter-of-fact and very calm and don’t
Leave out any detail. It is easy to listen to you with
Your very soft Continental voice with a hint, just a hint of
Southern gentleman
And you dig and I listen and the sun shines down on us
In this perfect Southern California day
I drink a 7UP and my feet dangle, I remember that
Always, and as you dig and I drink and the sun shines
down in perfect pre-Ozone fearing brilliance I tell you
That some day I am going to live in New York City
And you, being a good listener and charmed by anything
Your adored four-year-old girl says, nod and say that
will be nice Jan. I tell you that I will dance like the men and women
In the old movies I love to watch on afternoon television;
Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly are the forces who have captured
My imagination. You keep digging and tell me
about when you used to take my mother dancing. And I drink my
7 UP and you dig and the sun shines
and I understand
We are happy now
storytellerla 