Fallout (Crank 3)

who picked her up,

put her on his shoulders

to “see the world from way

up high,” just like he later

did for me. It was he who

put her on her feet

when she took a spill

off her bicycle, not

Grandpa Who’s-it in

Albuquerque. The story

goes it was Mom who

told her to leave home,

because she had turned

all our lives inside out

and we wanted them right

again. It was Mom who

said a sad but firm good-bye.

So why has it always

seemed to me that it

was Dad who so firmly

and irrevocably

closed the door behind her?

I REALIZE SUDDENLY

That Dad is waiting for me

to say something. Why did

I call again? Oh, yeah. Tickets.

“How long will Mom be in Vegas?”

Not sure, he says. The kids

need someone to take care

of them. That’s why she had to