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