#carseat
Don’t know what I was thinking
Setting out on a lone mission
A vision of isolation
Just me and the baby
Just you and me
Away from the family
Just being free
Alone in your company
But I hadn’t planned
On being stuck in the van
A resonating can
With an infant,
Crying and screaming
As loud as you can
But I guess this is my destiny
A night of plight
Of no delight
You’re out of sight
(not out of mind)
As you fight for your right
To scream with all might
Respite me my fury
Confusedly it calms me
From angry to sorry
To crazy to groggy
You’ve just gotta tell me,
With words
If you could speak,
Why you’re crying in your car seat
I don’t know what you want from me
Is it a need to pass gas
Just eruct at last
Supercharge it and blast
You can set your burp free
My ears are getting tired
Can't find your pacifier
And I’ve died singing rhymes
Repeated so many times
Craft new ones as I drive
Read’em off of road signs
But for everything I’ve tried
You’ve just cried and cried
And pried at my heartstrings
Made it hard to listen
To your tears run on your cheeks,
Make them glisten,
Swell and redden,
Breath cut short and uneven,
Can’t stop on the highway
And anyway
There’s no milk in my *******
To ease your unrest
And I’ve tried my best
To pass this test
But my mind’s in arrest
As you’re peaking the crest
But I jest
I’ll stay correct
Don’t fret
My hands set the wheel to nest
Through this forest
That I’m driving to madness
Speeding through sadness
I can’t do what it takes
Don’t have all the makes
Of the things used to nurture,
Spare me this torture
Of my child crying Mother,
I’m just a father
And there’s not much further
To drive now, not longer
Then the limit of your spirit,
Set to demerit the best I can offer:
A full set of tires
And the patience I’ve mustered,
From the love that I’ve fostered
From the future you’ve proffered
From when I first held you
Something was real
For both our lives to begin anew
Mine and yours too
Whether it was yours to choose (or not)
You still closed the noose on me,
Gave tattoos for free
Indefinitely
Made me follow your (unstoppable) beat
Made me cry in the car seat!
Maybe not, but assuredly
Made me sweat in the heat
Of this heroic feat
With no teet to cheat
To sooth the ache of your teeth
Or a full diaper beneath
A onesie
Buttoned clumsy
Crooked and haphazard
Not well set to your feet
Heck, I gotta ***
Drank too much coffee and tea
It’s roiling in me
Seatbelt’s squeeze on my belly
And you’ve dropped your teddy
I can’t reach back and be
Buckled up for safety
Grabbing back just blindly
Why’d you drop your snuggly
Knowing I’d retrieve it freely
You’re just tired,
Overwired
Ready to great the sheets
Just help me make ends meet
And sleep, just sleep
Count sheep, discreet,
You just gotta stop crying in your car seat
And when we get home you’ll see
Just when I shift down to P
You’ll stop crying and sleep
And your mom’ll ask me
“How’d it go honey?”
“Easy-peasy” I’ll gurgle
Not proud but not humble
Gotta hide that I struggled
Smuggle emotions as I waddle
To the toilet to *** bottles
Unable to stop quaking
While you’re cooing and sleep-suckling
I keep my cool and say something
Another charade of parental aid
Nerves frayed, laid bare,
Free to be betrayed,
Assayed for red eyes
But your mother is fair
That’s why we’re together
She’s got the keys to me
Knows how to see
Through my mask of restraint
But she knows to refrain,
To hold the key, not use it, please,
Nor intrude or tease,
Peruse my elusive attitude,
Breeze through my ease
Look into me
With your lover’s mind’s eye
You see, you bore into me
But my mine’s ore’s mine to keep
The crude fuel I claim to use
To choose over *****
Like my father before me
And his before him
And his again and again
The only bottle I’d touch
Is just big enough
For a meal of milk,
White as silk,
Purer than biblic,
The sap of a mother
Tapped by no other
Than you who grew within her,
A seed from the soul,
For whom it’s now my role
To appease and cajole
Even while
I drop change in the toll booth,
Tune in on old news,
Open windows for a cold woosh,
Going solo was a bold move
But here we are
Two spiders in a fire
Two fools on four tires
The center of the universe and its father
All time and space gone,
Meaningless,
Mass and gravity,
Who cares for relativity,
String theory,
Dark matter and energy,
Quantum particles entangled like you me
How’s all that for a bed time story
Telling of which is a free service
You’ll never have to pay me
To put things in perspective
Even in retrospective
I’ll never ask you for money
To do something for me
Because I cared for you baby
Listened to you crying
And screaming so hard
As I keep my eyes on road signs, crying,
Never tiring yourself out,
Going through upset to reset,
Lightsout, I won’t shout,
Not again,
Nor shake you,
There’s no end to the violence I could do,
Could easily make come true,
Turn our house to a zoo.
Someone would certainly sue
The abuse if it spew
From the beast in the animal,
The monster, inflammable,
But I’m able to have what it takes
To put food on the table,
Turn nightmare to fable,
Serve soup with a ladle,
No sleep as I cradle
So do what you will,
Make this hell on four wheels,
But there’ll be no devil emerging
From our pentagon of five seats,
I’ll just take a swig of old tea
In a cold thermos,
Too steeped
As you cry in your car seat
Almost to sleep
Almost to sleep
To sleep
To sleep
Sleep.
Silence
There’ll never be a sweeter sound
Then the quiet hum of your breath
No symphony can harmonize with peace
Nor trees flutter their leaves in ease
Nothing can ever please me
As much as your simple well-being in sleep
Unused extra notes
Raise my voice, a choice, just twice, unwise, advice, let ire slip by, vice, toys, girls & boys, a Rolls-Royce
Feb 19
Feb 19, 2026 at 7:22 PM UTC