TOMORROW WE DISCUSS COTTONWOODS

My father-in-law catches me reading again.

Seeing I am not doing anything important,

he begins to explain how dandelions go to seed

and how the wind blows the seed every which way

depending on which way the wind is blowing.

He tells me if I want to know what it is like to be busy,

I should try to keep a yard free of dandelions

when all the neighbors’ yards are only dandelion patches.

He thinks I do not know such things

(last week he told me how a lawnmower works).

He thinks I read hopelessly book after book

in search of the true story of dandelions,

how they go to seed that the wind blows every which way.

Interrupting me, he is only being kind, only saving me time.