Daddyku: ‘Relax’
Relax Sinterklaas is fun, pretend—until the prospect of Black Pete, and coal.
Not Without My Friend
More birthday, over at DadBloggers: ‘I could spend hours at The City Museum, climbing ladders and bruising shins, but with Ian there I’m too concerned about him disappearing down a hole to give myself the freedom to do the same. Yet with that chance, with as many eyes watching Ian as there have ever been, […]
He’s So Good to Me
I don’t wish Jared Fogle any specific harm. He seems like a nice guy, and I can’t fault him for beating the low-fat corpse of Subway’s dead horse for as long as he can. It’s also not his fault that he and I have the same first name and similar visage, and that when people […]
A Moment’s Sacredness
A Moment’s Sacredness By Tony Woodlief ‘Before her baptism, our Caroline, who was only two, called our pastor “the creature,” which was as close as she could get to “the preacher.” After her baptism, she called him God. I always wondered what she saw or sensed as he prayed over her, to give her a […]
Hyperbole
Ian and I spent quite some time yesterday playing Hide the Shoe. Despite my son’s flair for complex rules of engagement, the game is as simple as it sounds: hide the shoe, find the shoe. Clues are allowed, as are ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ nudges. Ian’s hiding spots were easy to find; he giggled whenever I […]
Metrical Friday: ‘My Son the Man’
My Son the Man By Sharon Olds Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider, the way Houdini would expand his body while people were putting him in chains. It seems no time since I would help him to put on his sleeper, guide his calves into the gold interior, zip him up and toss him […]
New Tricks
Far from a testament to progenitorial prowess, this site has instead been a useful if painful chronicle of a floundering father. If fatherhood is the Petries’ living room, I’ve managed to stumble over most of the footstools. But I’ve learned a few things. Last Sunday was a crash day. Kelly’s play had finished the previous […]
Metrical Friday: ‘a song in the front yard’
a song in the front yard By Gwendolyn Brooks I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life. I want a peek at the back Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows. A girl gets sick of a rose. I want to go in the back yard now And maybe down the alley, […]
Wish I May
On the way to school this week, Ian asked me about stars and wishes. We’d been there before. ‘Daddy, do stars have wishes? Do they come true?’ ‘No, honey. It’s just pretend.’ And the sentimentalist in me wondered if Kelly and I were killing our son’s childhood. We don’t do Santa Claus or the Easter […]
Metrical Friday: ‘Are We There Yet’
Are We There Yet By R. Virgil Ellis you’d say, tired of our prompting to see the world as you should: train-thunder as we go under a trestle, smiling face painted on a barn. You’d even get bored looking for signs that had the rare q, x, or z. Are we there yet? So we […]