If I’d ever ask my dad what is motto is,
I imagine he’d smirk at me
and toss his broad shoulders in the air,
or maybe force a raspberry sound
out from under his mustache.
I imagine his motto to be something like
The past is the past, what’s done is done.
Why else would he shrug off questions
and leave the stories to my mother?
When Dad was a boy, and would go on trips
with his family, they’d bypass stores,
restaurants and attractions that billboards
would announce miles from their coming.
His father would go to the Shoney’s, but not
the In-N-Out across the street.
They’d go to the hunting lodge up the road,
but not the tackle shop they’d just passed.
Hotels and bathroom breaks were always
ahead, never behind, and always
on the right side of the road.
But now, years later, our
‘Dad, go back’, is always met
with the turning of the wheel.
published in Creative License
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