Workaday

by Anita S. Pulier

...what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
—Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays

Not yet allowed to cross the street
I waited patiently at the corner,
peering down the block, until he appeared
walking home from the F train.

I, who have
traveled the world,
seen many wonders,
believe that no
wilderness trek,
no safari thrill,
has ever compared
to the moment I would spot him,
my five-year-old heart racing,
small frame bouncing up and down,
waving, screaming Daddy, Daddy,

and he would laugh,
drop his briefcase,
lift me high above the world,
challenge me to guess
which sweaty palm held
a piece of bubblegum
or penny candy.

Oblivious to his
long and burdensome day,
I long assumed that my joy,
my earth shaking happiness,
was all that consumed us both.


* * * * *

"Pandemic Reality Show" was first published in Juniper and is part of Anita S. Pulier's new poetry collection Toast (Finishing Line Press, 2021).

Anita S. Pulier’s three chapbooks Perfect Diet, The Lovely Mundane and Sounds of Morning and her book The Butchers Diamond  were published by Finishing Line Press. Her second full length book Toast has just been released. Anita’s poems have appeared both online and in print in many journals and her work is included in six anthologies. Anita has been the featured poet nine times on The Writers Almanac.
Her website is: http://psymeet.com/anitaspulier/