Things Ahoy!

Dads take such joys
in reality. In things ahoy!
Remark them, now
and then, again.

"A little leezaard!"
One says,
two look.
Sho' 'nuff.

There's a lizard, there, by
the nook. Or,

out on the road, reading
random signs.

Out loud.

A serene
announcement
chimes or booms, proud
of business and literacy!
"Marks Pizza,"

...bit flat unimpressed, perhaps.
Or "John's Dale’s Public High
School," cool. So cool low-key,
like a mischief god. "There's
a Sam!" "Wally-World!"

That's code for Sam's
Wholesale Club, boys
and girls, and
Walmart,
for
the people,
so you know.

An announcement, just
keeping eyes and road
lively, I guess!

All dads
do this right,
don't they?

It's an art. Mark
things. On-time.
Spot-on. Look at

that. Saw it first, it’s

oh wait, it’s an obvious porn store,
now that it’s proclaimed aloud. Bad look.
Or
(if dad's on whim) it's a cloud-shaped
cloud

up there! To him. Just so
it is, in fact. Well-marked!
Good catch. So it is, so
we go. All just
what it seems.
That's pretty
much how

I learned to know.

Well, then I'd
go ask mom

reality check.
supreme
surprise

on some suchlike
otherwise subtle
things. To ask
why is always
not always
wise,

but I’d go
ask mom, sometimes.
She tries.