Raise Your Kids

Get down here and grow up and you can get some too.

Go to work and pay your bills

and do the dishes and clean the cat box.

Dream and sleep and wake up and work out

and make the coffee and fill up the car.

Go to the movies and laugh a little.

Drink too much beer and too much wine.

Get a belly and have the doc scold you once a year.

Have the conversation about dinner every day

and make sure to buy eggs and decide about the paint color.

Get an acre and get a riding mower.

Get a breakfast nook and get some bar stools.

It's all yours.

One Ton Angel

I've got this one ton angel

who says, “It’s up to you.”

And I say, “That’s no help.

What kind of angel are you?”

“The worst,” he says.

“Get out of here angel!”

I bring the match up and light

the whole brown earth of Kentucky

on fire and suck it down and breath it out

and feel like I shouldn’t.

Something Wise

You’re growing up in the future.

A future of

self-truth

and plastic

and maidens

waiting for roses

and others

waiting for justice.

I’m scared

and I’m proud

and I’m sorry

that we left things this way

for you.

Beauty and wit

and stories and

determination,

some from your mother

another bit from me

and you’ll do fine

If I had to say

something wise

it’d be this,

“Apologize only for what you do,

and not for who you are.”

But remember,

we’re the ones

who got you into this mess.