In Retrospect

It could have all

played out differently, he thinks,

while waiting for the grandchildren

to get ready for school.

 

She could have said no,

no I don’t want to go steady with you,

turned and sauntered away,

or dumped him on his ass

when they went off to college,

or when she found someone better

while dating in college or…

 

And then he wouldn’t

be sitting here waiting

for the grandchildren to get ready

for school, at least not these

particular grandchildren.

 

 

 

Michael Estabrook is a recently retired baby boomer child-of-the-sixties poet freed finally after working forty years for “The Man” and sometimes “The Woman.” No more useless meetings under florescent lights in stuffy windowless rooms. Now he’s able to devote serious time to making better poems when he’s not, of course, trying to satisfy his wife’s legendary Honey-Do List.