Little Boy
I am thinking of a little boy,
who did not talk until 3 years old,
got the award at summer camp for “boy sick most often,”
had ear infections so rampant,
a doctor inserted tubes to take them away,
which improved his hearing,
which allowed him to hear language,
and he began to speak;
I am thinking of an 8 year old,
stealing packs of baseball cards,
he and 3 buddies deciding to do this
— all together — at the SAME TIME,
We allowed the police to take him to the station,
Getting finger printed scared him so bad,
he refused to enter this store again,
I am thinking of a 12-year-old
confiding to me in secret,
face beaming with pride,
“Mom, I want you to know,
I quit smoking.”
We praised God when he graduated from high school.
Posing as his father, he called in sick so many times,
We made a deal with the school:
Only his mother could call in for him;
This child, bounced on his head in the locker room,
unconscious in the ambulance,
awoke on the way to the hospital,
where we met him at the door,
This child whose soccer team won regional
the last game of his senior year,
now keeps in touch with teammates,
his loyalty to school and friends unmatched,
Goes away to college and finds
he can wake himself up
with something called “an alarm clock“,
Graduates in May after I get my PhD,
This son, our youngest,
so stubborn, so headstrong,
outmatches his father in being opinionated,
manages to offend
half of those he ever meets,
The world is black or white to these two,
and there is no such thing as gray,
This son, to whom family means so much,
loves caring for his nephews,
watching football with his dad,
This son now finds a job,
1000 miles from the nearest relative.
We plan to stay in touch on facebook,
share lives by cell phone,
visit by train,
Somehow in the last 25 years,
This child became a man.
Doctor Grandma 
Leave a comment