Dad

Scold-scalded, age nine,

after playing with matches,

pasta-mothered, wrath-fathered,

eldest of five brothers

grew to a football-savvy,

Marine-bold, keg-bellied man

of speech-grudging beer-hoist.

Mom

Fourth and last daughter

of priest-fear and Celt-song

became a young woman

of hug-lavish gab-laughter,

Somerville-silly, rosary-blushing,

chore-cheerful in laurel-terraced snow

and walk-to-school-soakers.

Me

Peer-wary quirk-bundle

of lone-scrawled switch-crushes,

sonnet-mad for a whiskey-limber

Welshbard, word-thirsty Tom,

autumn-oded mope-rock embodiment

of teen-gloom and mind-twist,

young-old, square-shilling, I was

not cool. Sitcom-nourished, ravioli-fed,

doom-dynamo, In-Crowd-hater,

speech-stickler, fact-maniac, rule-brittle

bully-target for stone-jeer and stick-barb,

Logan-blasted, Eastie-anxious,

maladjusted Scotch-stealer, girl-spurned

poem-proclaimer, yes, that's me.