Maybe children are always
in training for something.
Always being told to do something
they do not want to do.
Caleb and Michael and I
in jeans and T-shirts and long bangs.
You have to work hard for things
you want
is what parents say,
is what the wind says. The three of us
are skating near the Safeway
and Caleb jumps
off his skateboard,
walks across the street, walks right up
to this other kid and starts
beating him. All hands and legs.
a father
breathing hard, his face like a door slammed shut,
and crosses the street,
returns to us,
some good news
with blood on his shirt,
Attila the Hun smiling, skating
home toward the seventh grade.