Un Bel Di by Gerald Locklin

Because my daughter’s eighth-grade teachers
Are having what is called an “in-service day,”
Which means, in fact, an out-of-service day,
She is spending this Friday home with me,
So I get up in time to take us,
On this summery day in March,
For a light lunch at a legendary café
Near the Yacht Marina.
Then we feed some ducks before catching
The cheap early-bird showing of
My Cousin Vinny, at which we share a
Dessert of a box of Milk Duds large
Enough to last us the entire show.
Afterwards we drive to a shoe-store to
Get her the Birkenstocks she’s been coveting,
But they’re out of her size in green; we leave
An order and stop for dinner at Norm Calvin’s
Texas-style hole-in-the-wall barbeque rib factory.
When we get home I am smart enough
To downplay to my wife what a good day
We have had on our own. Later, saying
Goodnight to my little girl,
Already much taller than her mother,
I say, “days like today are the favorite
Days of my life,” and she knows
It is true.
– Posted from my iPhone