Monday, May 7, 2018

№ 328: Personal History I

When I was a boy I did not have friends
not even ones I imagined
so I got excited when a mutt,
followed me home from schoolBUT
my Mother said, “You cannot be serious.
Having an animal's hard.”
Thereafter Queenie (Mom called her) slept in my bed
and Mother had Dad slap together a shed
where I slept on old blankets in the backyard.

Yes, there were splinters and freezing cold winters

and in high school I could not get a date.
And although I wished for a bigger dish, 
I was (mostly) okay with my fate.
Mother said, “The experience will do you no harm.
Would you rather I send you to live on a farm?”