Inside

I still think of dad and

how he wouldn’t crawl

inside our backyard tent

because he knew

what the inside

of a tent looked like

And he vowed

that if he survived the war

he’d never stick his head

inside a tent, again

_____

I always wanted a gun

to shoot and hold in my hand

but Dad wouldn’t allow a gun

inside his house

He said he saw

what guns could do

in World War Two

and it doesn’t take a gun

to make a man

_____

Once mom painted

the bathroom pink

Dad came home

and all he said was

it looked like the inside

of a French whore house

mom started crying

slammed the bedroom door

and the bathroom

stayed pink for years

7-21-20