Connecting the Dots, by Maxine Kumin

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 for

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.

From “Connecting the Dots” by Maxine Kumin. (Norton: $18.95, 87 pp.). Copyright 1996 Reprinted by permission.