Need to Know

By Keith Mark Gaboury

In the mud room,
Samantha screams
at the imposition

 

of a kindergarten start time.
If you slice the word in two,

 

kindergarten basks
in a kind garden

 

yet my daughter
is not convinced
during her tantrum’s snap-back.

 

I move her body
since I must move my wheels
to the school’s parking lot.

 

As I scratch the walls of fatherhood
in the prison of manhood,
which hood do I want to plant

 

a tree and see green unfold?
This can’t be the life

 

I envisioned
back in my boyhood skin.

 

Keith Mark Gaboury earned a M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College. His poems have appeared in such literary publications as Poetry Quarterly, New Millennium Writings, and a forthcoming chapbook through Pedestrian Press. Keith is a poet and preschool teacher in Oakland, California.