Subway Psalm

(Found here)

It’s the first storm of the winter

and the worst since 1888,

the girl on television said.

I keep slipping in my leather-soled shoes.

Twice I’ve turned into a windmill

in my efforts to keep from falling.

At the top of the stairs leading down

to the subway, Johnnie watches me,

not just with his eyes but with his arms and legs.

He’ll do his best to save the old man.

That’s how I must have looked at him

when he was five or six years old.

Now he’s twenty-six, and it seems

we’ve traded places.

                                       Why are you laughing?

he asks me.

                        The honest answer is:

Because you look so funny, standing there

like that, my beautiful son,

and because I’ve loved you

for such a long time and because this

is the finest storm I’ve ever seen

and everything is exactly as it should be.

~Alden Nowlan