Coaxing my granddaughter to pet the toothless mastiff

             * 

Wishing I had submitted to the Irish x-rays

of my older sister’s totalitarian homilies

            *

Throwing Division I elbows at commercial testimonials

            *

Spitting undigested Ritalin into the faces of boring teachers

            *

He was incapable of anticipating a pleasant evening drive

without the intrusive vision of a 50-car pileup

            *

He was consumed by the probability of asteroid strikes

and the importance of staying hydrated

            *

Even the ease of take-out loomed like a zoonotic hotspot in his mind

            *

Disguising my illiteracy with rabbinical complexity

            *

Tom was the hemophiliac who would beg the other boys to hit him back during our street fights 

            *

He was the lone silverback tracing the monarch’s flight with a thick finger