Family man

In the summers our dad would wake us each morning

Singing over the loudspeaker 

I’m sure he would have loved to be a cult leader

And father figure to a family of 7 was close

But we wouldn’t follow him

He undermined himself

Struck neither fear nor love in our hearts

Yes, at times he set us to work on his visions-

Demolishing the walls of an abandoned house up the hill 

That he said would be ours,

Sending us to school in “Ask me about Super Blue Green Algae” pins

Promoting his pyramid scheme,

And chores and 

chores and 

chores

But mostly his charisma wasn’t aimed at us 

Except in the moments he lurked in the piano room

As the tickle monster waiting in cover of darkness

He’d seize us and 

We’d shriek in pure terror

rimmed with delight

To be dangled above the abyss —

To cry for mercy —

To wonder if our pleas would fall on deaf ears —

And knowing we didn’t hold the power 

To tow the line

And stake our bodies as our own sovereign territory

In those moments we might have been captured

And turned against the world at large

But somehow we were let to pass

Up the stairs to sleep

Protected in each other’s arms

To be woken by a voice through the wires 

That we need not heed.