Please don’t stand me up again
++Dad. Not tonight — it’s the first
++++sound sleep in weeks. I’m waiting
++in the blue pickup, my hair washed
+++++and fragrant with honeysuckle
+++++++or lilac. The truck radio still
works, murmurs distant news
++or Blood, Sweat & Tears.
+++++++++The sack lunches I’ve packed bulge
+++++bologna sandwiches, potato
++chips and a sterling sleeve
of your favorite Girl Scout
++++Pixies or Do-si-dos.
++++++The sun tints the field apricot
++or watermelon, and this baled hay still
looks like sliced cinnamon rolls.
The engine’s running, Dad,
++a quarter tank of gas left.
++++Please come whistling,
+++++your tattooed arm slung
++over my scout shoulders,
here where city lights
+++++can’t extinguish the stars.
Click here to read Shelly Reed Thieman on the origin of the poem.
Image by Michael Schlierf on pexels.com, licensed under CC 2.0.
Shelly Reed Thieman:
This poem was written as a conscious attempt to invite my late father into a dream. He passed unexpectedly when I was 14 years old and has only made rare appearances these 46 years later. I make use of many intimate details from our life together to allure him. Ironically, my intention and need to reconnect with him took a turn when it was my late mother who presented in a dream just a couple of nights after the poem was written. Now that this piece has been published, perhaps he will reconsider my overture. I regularly experience lucid dreaming and have learned to set intentions when I feel the need to connect with someone still living, or deceased. I continue my work on the practice of making conscious choices to alter what is happening during unpleasant or nightmarish dreams, and waking myself if I am unable to do so.
Shelly Reed Thieman is a mistress of montage. Her writing is heavily influenced by the discipline of haiku. Shelly’s poems have appeared in a wide array of diverse journals. She has work forthcoming in Lyrical Iowa 2024, Modern Haiku 55:3, and The MacGuffin 40:1. Shelly is a two-time Pushcart nominee.
Latest posts by Shelly Reed Thieman
(see all)
