Whip Smart

Family Photos

Never thought I’d come to dislike the kid

I see in the pictures. Whip-smart, so eager 

for experience, so quick to complete other 

people’s sentences. Candy for the girls. Now?

I hate him in the photographs. With that self

assured look, a dancer on the precipice

of the stage. What exactly was the point

of knowing Montrachet from Montigny?

Why it pays to take the outside pitch to the 

opposite field? Buy on bad news. The

hard lessons to come aren’t printed yet.

If they were he’d look like Queequeeg, 

tattoos of trouble from head to foot. 

I want to tell him, “Look out”, but he doesn’t

listen except to his own voice. I recognize 

that voice. But it only wants dead air.