The large red cardboard blocks
lay strewn upon the carpet
after building them up
then knocking them down
along with some books
she had been throwing
then she placed the books neatly
lined up at the edges of
the blocks as if to repair them
“It’s fixed!” she exclaimed
as she pulled more books off
the shelves onto the waiting blocks
already she knows how to build
how to destroy
and what it will take to heal
Tag: DadPoem
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It’s Fixed
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Singer
At dinnertime our daughter
sings at the top of her lungs
not interested in food
or conversing with her audience
she sings many refrains
then refrains and sings them again
not sure if she’s showing off
all that she has accomplished
since the gathered crowd has last
assembled in our house a year ago
driving a day and a half
to be here for her almost birthday
and what do they get in return
such song such endless song
piercing the air with sweetness
what is dinner for but dessert
-
Run
Why so much running?
You run after preschool
in the church nursery
through strewn toys on the floor
You run with the neighbors
in an impromptu race
around the neighborhood
You run through songs
you’ve heard so many times
you make new words out of them
Daddy is tired just thinking about
how much you’re running mostly
because you take my hand and say
run with me Daddy and no matter
what I’m doing it is not as important
as running with you while I can
while we both still can although
I might take a short cut and walk
with bigger strides than you just
to conserve energy doesn’t matter
you still catch up to me and win
-
Face Time
My mother says she no longer sees
me in my daughter
and I can sort of see what she means
some features that once resembled
me at that age
have been obscured by
features of my father or brothers
or grandmother
or aunts or uncles or cousins
and of course my mother herself
my daughter stares
back at the reflection of herself
in the corner of the screen
as she waves kisses
goodbye at the end of a facetime
sometimes I catch a screenshot
of them making
the same pose at the same time
later I’ll take a video just
to remember
what she was like at this time
and wonder what she’ll think
of herself back then
when she grows up and groans
at watching the family videos
which I’m sure
I’ll insist on from time to time
already she sees herself waving
in the screensaver
at herself she recognizes
all the faces she has been
as if everyone
who once lived that she might live
are still living
-
Hide and Seek
Nothing
prepared us
although in
retrospect I
might have
guessed
the cutest
phrase from
her mouth
would be
READYORNOT
HEREICOME
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Too Fast
Looking at photos from almost
a year ago knowing how much
you’ve grown how much
you will grow how many moments
between the ones we remember
to capture the ones we don’t
see with our own eyes the only
conclusion I’ve reached is that
you’re growing too fast
there is no way to keep up with
the changes we witness and adjust
to every day the words to the songs
we half know in the morning
some harmonic resurgence
that cannot be explained by
the songs we all know to sing
together that somehow all scan
to Twinkle Twinkle ABCs all
of a sudden I see you seeing
Mister Rogers at the piano you go
from your thumb in your mouth
to arms outstretched admonishing me
to put down the unreflective glass
between my thumbs and please
dance with me daddy so I stand
and we dance around and around
to the music for awhile sometimes
slow and sometimes fast and I think
I can’t take a picture my hands are full
tonight I sang a song I don’t think
I’ve sung since the days when Pop-Pop
was dying days you cannot possibly
remember but the song you do remember
I’m being followed by a Moonshadow
you sing along you remember that song
Pop-Pop loved that song you echo
in my arms it all goes too fast and soon
you are fast asleep in my arms at last
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Puddle Sand
Summer so dry
the child had not discovered
a rain puddle until today
Even now the only one left
on this block as droplets
evaporate in the pavement
Static clouds overhead
keep us outside
she tramps the small
Collection of molecules
until they disperse
along with the leavings
Of trees punctuating
her hand motion
through the puddle
She might stay all day
is what I’m thinking
as we recall together
The day’s happenings
she repeats the refrain
what did we do today
I punctuate each moment
sometimes with a kiss
as between verses
Of a song she sometimes
does not want to end
I want her to remember
So many kisses
she thinks of them as
numerous as grains of sand
That shift and settle
punctuating the ocean
part of the water the same
-
At Lunch Today
While recording the world’s most hilarious
video of a toddler at their highchair
in the known universe I marveled at
the facial recognition software pre installed
that allowed us to volley wow faces
and giggles in an ad hoc infinite
loop that might have gone on forever you
didn’t even abruptly announce all done
we traded grimaces side eyes smiles and oohs
like we invented them no idea what prompted
such an improvisatory outpouring of emotion
must have just been in the mood to let it out
all the mirror exercises peek a boomerang
toomerang soomerang all laugh & laugh again
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Look
Screen time today such as
it was involved letting
the Apple TV fall asleep
to initiate the screensaver
of recent activity in our
photo albums that mostly
concerned capturing our
child in various states of
having faces to which we
can only reply (by we I mean
mostly me) just look at that face
this is that face our child
may be taking after us
calling out to every object
in her vision this is that
object and this is another
and this is something else
the only one of its kind
in the whole world like it just look
Joshua Keiter 