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Category: Family

POEM: End of the line

Published 23 January 2022 by Jason Crane

End of the line

Your parents’ house is gone,
replaced with a larger,
less interesting version of
the suburban dream.
Four generations of your history
and someone knocked it down,
just like that.
I’m a sucker for a good metaphor
but c’mon.
Can I tell you the stupidest thing?
I ate a breath mint just before I arrived,
on the off chance you were also
making a stop on a farewell tour.
You weren’t, of course, more’s the pity.
Have you replaced me with a newer version?
I guess it doesn’t really matter.
I miss your folks, though. They were my
last remaining parents.
As I drove out of town I said
“Goodbye, Livingston,” aloud,
for what I assume was the last time.
Thomas Wolfe. What a bastard.

/ / /

23 January 2022
Livingston NJ &
Colonie NY

Thanks to CC for the title.

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A Christmas haibun

Published 25 December 2021 by Jason Crane

We’re in our bedroom. I’m standing behind them, arms around their waist. I ask whether there’s anything we could do to fix things, to be together. They smile sadly but don’t answer. That’s when I awake, my brain saving me from another crushing reply. Christmas slips the knife back in. I know it takes time, but hasn’t there been enough? I’m ready for the part where it hurts less. Mostly I just want them back so damn much and I want to stop wanting that.

the kettle is on
in someone else’s house
Christmas

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POEM: one of the characters on Gilmore Girls

Published 7 December 2021 by Jason Crane

one of the characters on Gilmore Girls

is telling her friend how much she misses
the boy she broke up with on an earlier episode

does that mean I have the emotional maturity
of a high school student or at least

the emotional maturity of what a television writer
thinks a high school student is like?

because my partner and I split up more than a year ago
& all I want is a Very Special Episode on which

we get back together after an unlikely series of events
that culminates in the realization

that we made a terrible mistake in our living room
on that hot desert day in August

I talk fast like these characters do & that seems to be
all they need to fix things but it isn’t working for me

maybe I can get a team of comedians in here
to punch up the script

/ / /

6 December 2021
State College PA

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POEM: Good afternoon, Stan Getz.

Published 27 November 2021 by Jason Crane

Good afternoon, Stan Getz.

Good afternoon, Stan Getz.
I used to know what most of these
Portuguese words mean but now I don’t.
As I was typing the lines above I remembered
that you (not you, Stan, the other you)
also liked this album a lot.
In fact when I made us a nice dinner,
timed for the moment you got home from work,
it’s what I’d put on in the background.
My son is down the hall now,
listening to hip hop that’s fighting
with the soft drums of Milton Banana.
What a great name: Milton Banana.
I don’t know if his last name is said
like we’d say the fruit but I sure hope so.
Anyway back to my son:
Last night we had a long conversation
about the nature of happiness & security
& it turns out he has his own ideas
on those subjects & many others.
I love being surprised by what & how he thinks.
(Now Astrud is singing & I’m missing you.)
(Not you, Stan. Again, sorry.)
There’s a dog tucked up behind me on the sofa.
I chose “sofa” there because it sounds more
sophisticated than “couch” & this
is sophisticated music, you know?
Anyway, Stan, what was I saying?
I think the point is there’s a little snow on the leaves
on the ground on this little patch of planet &
that always means it’s time to dig into the vaults
for the good stuff from back in the day.
You’re one of the good things, buddy, so out you come.
Ha! Good one, Stan. Now you’re playing “Summertime.”

/ / /

27 November 2021
State College PA

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POEM: watching You Can’t Take It With You

Published 7 November 2021 by Jason Crane

watching You Can’t Take It With You

I remember all those times
in your parents’ kitchen watching TCM
I loved to sit there with them
trying to remember the actors’ names
or other films we’d seen them in
your mom was always the best at it
until tonight it’d been a long while
since I’d watched an old movie
another loss in a catalog of the missing

/ / /

6 November 2021
State College PA

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