Thanksgiving Poetry Contest: I Wonder, Clarence Caddell

 Clarence Caddell lives in Western Australia. He is the author of the poetry collection The True Gods Attend You (Bonfire Books, 2022) and the editor of poetry journal The Borough.

I Wonder

I wonder always what it means

    To them, and may not know

Until all three are in their teens

    And see me as their foe.

He always asks, “Do we live here?”

    “Do you?” “Did we before?”

And like his brothers, his good cheer

    Or bad is like a door

That doesn’t lock. And now, the text

    “Let’s build a time machine!”—

Has it an underside? Perplexed

    I ask him what he’s keen

To see… No answer. Boxes, glue,

    Textas I have, and so on.

He plucks a flower, starts anew:

    With a curious koan:

“What's the word for 'flower'?”

    He laughs. Then later on,

“Why don't I have a superpower?”

    (He's still just four, this son

Of mine.) “Well who has powers? Me?”

    “What do I have?” Oh please

Don't say invisibility,

    To live in imagined ease

Far from my once-real life with you!

   “Super strength.” Oh, so kind!

I hug him thanks for a word as true

    As that he read my mind.