Alley Pond Boulevard

My dad reads me
Bible stories from
the bottom of my
parents' bed and
I am five, and
mom's not dead

And then I go
to visit him in
Assisted Living -
Friday night again,
and he'll ask me
to remind him
of the parshah

And I pray to
remember what
just came to me,
to cherish now -
like my youth,
so perishable.