More bumpy-bumpy, daddy, my daughter calls out

I flick the wheel and find the gap of a manhole cover

Imagine if we saw a shark out here right now
I regretted it as soon as I said it

Grinning big, Mo beckoned us in

To his front room to see his ofrenda

the fire is going out

and the shadows in your sundial eyes are lengthening

surely it will get darker than this.

The streetlights are out tonight

And my lights are out too

Our numb ungloved hands struggle with skate laces
Puffy fingers and apparent breath

There are moments of giving way. The inexorable crowning move-through, God’s knitting dropping stitches.

The older I get, the harder it is to be a child. Self-evident, I know.