by Justin Hyde
what does the turkey say?
i ask my
two and a half year old son.
gobble gobble gobble,
he says.
i ask him to repeat
the word:
verisimilitudinous.
verimiltue,
he says.
then we recite the
alphabet together
a couple times
before he gets tired
of my little quizzes.
he wants to take his toy airplanes
and slide them
back and forth
along the length
of the strings
on his mother’s guitar.
he has a
wild orchid
growing inside of him.
i guess the idea
as a parent
is not to kill it.
he hands me
a blue airplane.
i slide it
along the
strings.
Clutching at Straws 