I INVITED

I invited my mother and father into my dream

which included a table    chairs    a record player

an early evening hospitality    my

friends say that their parents are always present

to pester the night with little pearls of acid advice

my parents are not like that

I wanted to see my mother and father

together    They appeared    they organized their bodies

slowly they saw each other before they were

aware of me    She looked at him    my god    Zenya

how old you’ve grown in these forty years she said

also much shorter    is it true you never married?

my father was embarrassed    he was probably ashamed

to have outlived her    by so many years

What could they say?    then thank goodness they

remembered their own children

Well of course    he said    You knew the first little one

at least you gave her some pretty tight hugs

and kissed her from head to toe    The other one my son

a good man he worries

about my health    he asks me    do you have a fever

are you still coughing?    he was a doctor too

he lived long

                             my mother was amazed

my father says why not    It’s common in this country

even I with a vicious heart attack lived to be eighty-nine

my mother says    my god    eighty-nine?

all those years did you think    of me?

all the time    he said    at my eightieth birthday I

told everybody I owe everything to you

that was very nice she said    reaching out

you were working so hard I didn’t think you remembered me

from one day to the next