Our story changed when I heard him hear

Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring,

the clicking of his Legos,

his older brother saying “shut up idiot,”

his younger brother screaming a room away

about missing sticks of gum,

a squirrel scritching on the metal gutter,

a pick-up truck hitting a loose manhole cover-

clu-clung, me typing and yelling to get his soccer stuff on

now and me yelling again when his older brother won’t stop

whistling Bach’s cantata, squeaking bus brakes,

a fast idling engine.

***