The words our child
exclaims most confidently
are often the words
we least understand
Crayon? Care? Cairn?
Crane? Crone? Corn?
Core? Crate? Crave?
Corona? Carry? Crying?
Sometimes with investigation
we identify the word
from a song and even
adjust lullaby time accordingly
Sometimes we catch ourselves
saying the word in context
which our child must have
mimicked successfully
Sometimes we wonder if
our child is just parroting us
and sometimes we know
she is creating her own language
as all of us take care to do
Category: Poems
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Vocabulary
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You May Be Right
It is probably true
in fact it is most
certainly true
having a child
brings you back to
your childhood
in sharper relief
see that pop star
playing the garden
for the hundredth time
songs you used to
carry with you
in cassette form
to elementary school
the first music
you called your own
turns out thousands
felt much the same
some much younger
than you sing along
since you know how
they feel you know
I may be crazy
how to pass it along
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Talks About Music
Still growing cautious
of introducing our child
to cultural artifacts we know
are unrecoverable, even as
I scour the library book sale
for a second day searching for
what I remember. What will
we do when she becomes
so attached to them she wants
to meet them, hug them
in a full spontaneous embrace
as when the six year old pianist
Niki Hoeller was so overwhelmed
by meeting Mister Rogers
and playing for his television
neighbors and operating trolley,
Niki needed to hug Mister Rogers,
however awkwardly, upon leaving.
Or when in the very next visit
Mister Rogers himself so overcome
with the emotion of Yo-Yo Ma
playing the cello he felt the same
impulse to embrace the musician.
I remember what might have been
a created memory, a cassette tape
of my brother meeting Mister Rogers
and saying “I love you” to him
and Mister Rogers saying the same
in reply. I have no idea if such
a cassette even exists in our history
or if I may have witnessed
such an occurrence on TV
and transposed the moment
as familial. Our child now sings
Mister Rogers songs in a medley
of her own making, letting one word
prompt her to another song
with the same word. Little wonder
then when she gives us a big hug
we are grateful at our meeting.
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Bedtime Routine
The child has gotten into
the habit of asking
for a full account of
what happened each day
as part of the process
of getting ready for sleep
sometimes long after
sleep should have arrived
inevitably I revise myself
as I go through the morning
routine playtime lunch nap
walk playground neighbors
dinner sometimes bath
and the protracted lurching
towards something that
resembles bed readiness
tiny moments my mind
somehow recollects even
as I lull at least myself
to sleep with song
today for instance I forgot
to mention how we stopped
on the way out of the library
for a new slate of board books
to appreciate the statue of
a book emblazed with hearts
each one uniquely illustrated
with shapes she recognized
reviewing my camera roll
I wondered how I might have
recounted such a moment
that she should remember
the shape of books and hearts
finding their place within them
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Theatre Hiatus
So many aspects of life
I spent years trying to recover
extended hiatus all part of the job
seeing productions take the stage
fleeting photos on social media
disjuncture of feeling left out
and having no idea how I would
manage to memorize lines let alone
audition in this bedraggled state
of course another life takes place
in absentia the child now performs
songs complete with their motions
before the probably on too long TV
I capture with my camera anticipating
the feeling of her first performance
I am increasingly convinced will occur
sooner rather than later as opposed
to my return to the stage I have no
desire to attempt at all any time soon
so many lines to attend to
so much unrepeatable rehearsal
as the song plays again and again
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Time Block
Spent part of nap time today
watching a video describing
how time past present future
are basically an illusion
that we could visualize time
as a static block in the universe
where all past present future
happens or happened all at
once and I could sense
that must be true how else
to explain the familiar feeling
of every day with this child
how their aspect resembles
myself and others as if I
already knew who they are
going to be by virtue of
knowing they arrived from
that part of myself I know
resides somewhere in this
universe as it is another way
of thinking about time is
a squiggly line atop the static
of the past as uncertainty
of a future that has not
happened unfolds in a multitude
of nows as it is when their hair
is tousled to the point of tangles
sometimes it settles simply
with a slight brushing aside
and sometimes not
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Midday Walk
Drawn to wide open spaces
in the middle of the day
the sun uneclipsed
saturates the grass with green
child connects with leaves
one at a time
the soccer field manicured
remnants of autumn
obliterated to the woods
nevertheless these stains
of brown hold attraction
some standing like trees
ready for the child
to pluck like some giant
and carry as trophy
for tromping this far so big
unintentionally crunching
to brittle dust in her fingers
she hands to me as I show
how the breeze reclaims them
in a sad parabola to the ground
she moves on to the next one
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Totally Clips
The eclipse fell
just at nap time
so our child was
not in the room
with the window
open wide to see
the crescent at
eighty seven percent
through purchased
protective lenses
however this morning
our child pointed
at a prism reflection
in the hallway
naming the colors
touching the light
then at bedtime we
played where is she
sitting on the floor
as behind my back
our child asked
where is her name
while I pretended
not to know where
our child was looking
left and right until
she emerged often
reflected in the mirror
laughing at my surprise
asking for more
I know she knows
awe is everywhere
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Paper Backs
Surprised by a box of books
from another house barely
surviving forty or fifty years
some spines hardly holding on
some with semi-psychedelic colors
illustrating imaginative renderings
of what could be waiting behind
wrapping paper for a speedy delivery
sweet pickles teaching the alphabet
with unusual animal names
some books had my name inscribed
more than once some also had
my brother’s name crossed out
these hand me downs of hands
flipping pages our child asks
to go back to a book she already
knows her pristine copy dogeared
yes but nothing compares to this
quintessence of dust and glue
even asking for pages far forward
toward the end of the book
she asks in clearest syllables go back
go back
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Mall Carousel
Took a trip to Plymouth Meeting Mall
for Mum-Mum’s birthday discovering
a circus big tent set up in the parking lot
to contrast the empty storefronts inside
children having a pizza birthday party
with games and bungee trampolines
arcades and building block experiences
providing the mall’s only livelihood
coin operated boats and school buses
just as diverting without paying for motion
and at the center the carousel
sitting silent with attendant sweeping
we started the line getting tickets to ride
soon followed by fellow families
intergenerational attraction to the spin
of highly lacquered horses rising
up and down as they went around and
around we sat at the turning wheel
in either direction even a second level
the sights lit up their faces grandmother
and child on either side of the circle
within the circles creating more and more
childlike wonder at every turn a solar
system eclipsed only by our own joy
Joshua Keiter 