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Saturday Afternoon Before Jack's 2nd Birthday

Saturday Afternoon Before Jack’s 2nd Birthday

A Caravelle wall clock behind me
  ticks away muffled minutes,
Its black pointed hands 
   reaching upward and downward;

The EXIT sign above the open white door
    (to which is scotch taped a WELCOME notice,
    in large font letters, greeting visitors to the
    Pawnee County Arts Council Annual Art Show)
an unnoticed and ever present sentinel 
over all who pass through;

Colored cloth coverings--
  aqua, forest green, mustard,
  muted pink, turquoise, summer peach,
  skyandclouds, and black--
dress the worn tables;

Stark whiteandblack pencil drawings
  of old farm houses;

A bouquet of flowers 
  white and blue, the initials
  m/c and date 1979;

Gulls flying over a beach house,
  in the foreground a rowboat on 
  a patch of sand hemmed in by tall grass;

A fruit plate and pitcher 
  against a chocolate background;


The Magnavox CD player 
  sits on top of an old up-right
CABINET GRAND made by Hobard M. Cable
        of Chicago.
Its once snow-white ivory keys
  stained with age, like the teeth
  of an ancient smoker;

A tri-fold, white trellis displays
  framed portraits of the photographer’s
  two sons and daughter and a long-vacant
  house in a dense wooded pasture
  brightened by a lively growth of 
           spring wildflower
  and guarded year in and year out
  by gnarled trees
  which have taken over a farmyard
  once filled with growing children,
  chickens, and Old Yeller;

Sometime last week I called my grandson, Jack,
  and interrupted, briefly, the daily ritual,
With his father,
   of reading at his bedtime hour,
Both of them sprawled comfortably
  on the bedroom floor,
Late day’s light coming through
  the east-facing window;

In the background (phone pressed 
  to my ear) my daughter,
  Jack’s mother, 
Announcing,
  Jack, you have a telephone call
  ... it’s pa-pa;

My first “conversation” with my grandson, Jack,
Gives me great delight and much joy
  knowing that his brief but well enunciated yeah 
  to each of my questions indicated that, yes,
He knows what pa-pa is saying;

Are you going to have a birthday party?
   Yeah
Are you going to have a cake with candles?
  Yeah
And ice-cream, too?
  Yeah
Can pa-pa and grandma come?
  Yeah

So while the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
  fills the basement of the Union Bank
With strains of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and
The Caravelle ticks away the minutes
The anticipation of my grandson’s 
  2nd birthday celebration tomorrow afternoon
Fills my thoughts and the
120 minutes,
While at my post at the WELCOME Table.
 
_____________________________________

To Jack, From pa-pa
~ April 16, 2005

Copyright © Victor Faesser | Year Posted 2017

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