Father and Son

Let's workshop this poem that explores the shared anxieties between a father and his son through the lens of Halloween candy inspections and school lunch concerns

Father and Son

I decided to inspect my own candy
one Halloween. Images of grownups
sticking razorblades in Snickers bars
and rat-poisoning Dum Dums had me
throw away all but a couple pieces
from my pillow case, full on the table.
Were wrappers worn or disheveled
in the slightest, the candy was tossed. 

And now my son tells me not to pack
celery for his lunch side. The teacher,
he explains, will turn off the lights
if students are too loud while eating. 
It was then, in his earnest anxiety
about how the crunching of celery 
might result in lights-off rebuke,
that the Halloween memory arose.

*This poem originally appeared in FishFood Magazine (2016)