By: Carl Papa Palmer

Anticipation

She watches the officer’s precise approach in her rear view mirror, grips the steering wheel tightly keeping both hands in plain sight at ten and two. Not the first time in this situation, she recalls emotions felt while relating her same prior humiliating experience to smug listeners.

He slowly circles her vehicle from the back, around the passenger side to stand directly in front while writing on his notepad the whole time. He moves methodically to the driver’s door and taps the window, “Please turn off the engine and get out of the car, Ma’am.”

“Congratulations, you parallel parked perfectly. Here’s your license.”

###

Family Values

It made me feel good to see the family,
mother and father, daughter and son
sitting together on the spread blanket at the park
heads bowed around their picnic lunch, a tradition
of saying grace before the meal not often seen,

when they all look up, laugh and point
at the tweet just received on their iPhones.

###

Pushing His Buttons

Able to crawl over,
pull himself up
to reach switches,
knobs and buttons
on the home theater shelf,
his personal remote control
to make daddy jump,
holler, “NO”
and run across the room.