[38] One Day, Daniel Sklar

When I drive Max to camp
or walk to town with Sam,
I think of impermanence.
The tide is in, it is July.
Denise’s face is smooth
and wide. Her eyes are
calm and she is not worried.
I think of how in our house
there was a time we were
not there and there will be
a time we are not there but
in the dreams of my boys.
In my pocket are phrases
scribbled on scrap paper
what Sam said yesterday.
“Dream, dream, dream,
dream, dream, dream,
dream, dream, dream.”
What was I thinking
when I drove Max to camp?
It was something I wanted
to write about.
I was thinking about walking
with my sons, anyplace,
walking and how walking
someone will see us
from a bicycle or car
or walking and that will be all
of it. A father and his sons
walking in a small city
in New England by the ocean.
It will mean no more and no less
than that. This happiness
will be the dreams
of my boys grown up―
the happiness of a mother
and father and two sons
which was neither remarkable
nor new. It just was once.