Father and Son
FATHER & SON
The indoor soccer arena
was under the glide path
of the western approach
to the international airport
The still-clever father
made a snide macho comment
to the gold ear-ringed teenager
with the thick-muscled legs
“Uh huh”, said the kid
mentally reducing the angle and
speed of an attack on goal
as they crossed the parking
lot in the surreal fog of a
lake effect thaw
Breaking low ceiling,
its wings broad with flaps, the big
silhouette of a descending jet liner
was moving so slowly that it just
seemed to hover like a large
manta ray suspended in the lift
of a mild ocean current
“Nice”, said the man
“Yeah” said the kid,
who followed the plane over the
shining bald head and the
“gee wiz” gaze of his thickening
father and, just for an instant,
for the very first time, he thought
of his dad as a man
who could love
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