To the Parents of the Metaphor Cafe with Love

“La Petite Café at Midnight, New Years Eve”

I used to plan out our evenings

Then present you with choices

On an elegant menu next to a single red rose:

“Stefano’s and the Upstart Crow in Hillcrest,

Alfonso’s and a stroll to the Cove Theater in La Jolla,

La Petite Café and the Pannikin coffee house in the Gaslamp.”

Your choice.

And now we are hostage to busy babysitters

Limited to a couple of hours

--maybe three--

nodding off at films

tired dining at banal restaurants immediate to our home.

And sometimes we even do the unimaginable

Finding ourselves in, of all things, Grocery stores

--with coupons--

paying for the freedom to do

the mundane chores that life assigns.

And home, again

To kiss the foreheads and pull blankets under chins

--drive babysitter home--

only to return to a house softly slumbering,

tucking your blanket under your chin.

Our choice.

Maybe someday we will stay up late again

Planning evenings until midnight

On a New Years Eve

All dressed up with some place to go

But still worrying where they are

With no one to tuck them in.

p.s Many years ago, when are children were so young, I challenged my students to enter a poetry contest. They said, "Why don't YOU write a poem, Mr. Pacilio?" I told them to find a contest for teachers that paid real money! They did. "La Petite Café at Midnight, New Years Eve” was debut into the published world. It was the winner. Bob