Holiday Weekend

Meteorologist predicts, “Nice weather for the holiday weekend.”

Pause. Disbelief. Juneteenth?

No.

Memory catches up to his calendar.

This (Holiday) Weekend is Father’s Day.

Often. Some. Many. At.

Times

Holidays frame my conversation choices.

I

Look. Bend. Forward.

Straddled

Arms and legs extended

Across lines and numbers

Equal to X

X as the unknown

X is the unknown

On vacation

We skip math.

Holiday weekends

Fill up suitcases and shopping carts

With geography and history.

Often. Some. Many. At.

Times

X marks the spot

Not only calendars, but

Lines and dates

Tallies. Signatures.

Next to, underneath

We trip on smooth ground over things we ought to go around.

Like forgotten stories. Roots abandoned in the ground.

Transfer of ownership.

In

BLACK. earth. WHITE paper

Freedom to own land

Freedom of the land

Property lines

Family lines

Worn down. Written over

Erased to gray

So, we wish for sunny weather.

X

The signature of those with claim

In-deed

Illiteracy

Rolled dirt. Covered seeds.

Planted. Sprayed. Cut. Dug.

Tended. Recorded. Ripped.

Bought. Sold.

X

The claim to sex, gender

In-heritance

Illegitimacy

Dr. Mark Barnes, Juneteenth speaker, wasn’t wrong. “You gotta have a map, right?”

But which kind. . .

Weather? Economy? Human?

Some layer of ‘father’ chooses

What we receive? When we rest? Where we go? What we learn?

Every (Father’s) Day

Oppressors. Saviors.

(Every) Father’s Day

Sons. Daughters.

Every Father’s (Day)

A successful holiday weekend takes more than just

One reason to celebrate

One view of what’s next.