Words and Feathers

we woke up early
for a saturday
and drove not that far
from my house
i say my house even
though he lived there
at the time
in his own room over
the garage
an extra father in the house
always watching sports
or listening to ham radio
or playing his old giant wurlitzer organ
or arranging meet-ups with women he met at church
at the coffee cart after service
but today we were going out
to golf
i had never held a real club in my hands
never once set foot on a course that wasn’t
in some way
miniature
but today he wanted to take me
to the driving range
so we woke up early
for a saturday
and drove not that far
from my house
but when we arrived
because this was how he operated
how he planned most of his outings
they were booked up
or the wait would be too long
or maybe i didn’t have the right shoes
or maybe i didn’t have the right attitude
and he just shrugged
and we went back
and he got on his ham radio
and turned on a football game
and i read a book