Maxine Kumin
__________________________________________________________________
Connecting The Dots

I Think Daddy
just dropped dead
(our son at five)
I'll drive the car
and now they drive
us living, the large
children home
a week at Christmas
ten days in August
posing in
the family snapshot
flanked by dogs.
We're assayed kindly
to see if we're
still competent
to keep house, mind
the calendar
connect the dots.
Well we're still stack-
ing wood for winter
turning compost
climbing ladders
and they still love us
who overtake us
who want what's best
for us, who sound
(deep reservoirs
of patience) the way
we did, or like
to think we did.

© 1995 by Maxine Kumin

Maxine Kumin won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in l981-82. She has published ten books of poetry, the most recent of which is Looking For Luck (Norton) Her most recent collection of essays and stories is Women, Animals, & Vegetables (Norton).