(Poem 339 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

(Julian playing piano.)

Julian thinks he has blood burp,
the kind where blood comes out
of your body. We’re not sure if he
needs to go to the hospital, or if he
simply needs a glass of water.
He said he burped like 1,000 times.
He almost burped google plex.
Do you know what google plex means?
It means past infinity.

He’s busy playing the piano,
and such beautiful music makes
him wax contemplative.
Try to guess that song, he says.
Happy Birthday, I throw out on a whim.
NO! It’s something that says uuuuhhhh.
He’s learning to sound out words
in Kindergarten and likes to point out
the starting sounds of words to show
how smart he is, like the color red –
rrrrr, rrrrr, come on, guess it, he says.
rrrrr, eeeee, dddd, red. R, E, D. Red.

Back to uuuuuhhhh.
The name of his melancholic song.
He is very offended that I can’t figure it out.
Turns out, it’s Up from the movie.
I think that is the saddest sounding
song he can think of, and he wants
to play something soulful.
Now he’s banging in such a way that all the cats
have run outside.
He says the loud banging is from
the movie, too. It’s the part where there’s singing.
He’s done playing the piano.

Now he has my Wonder Woman sword
and is practicing stabbing me
in a variety of different ways.
Through the underarm is his favorite
because it comes out the other side
and looks really realistic.
Hey, wanna arm wrestle?
he asks conspiratorially.

I’m not sure how normal our relationship is.
This probably isn’t how most people imagine
grandmothers and grandsons spend their time.
But I don’t want to miss a second of it.
What do you want for Christmas? I ask.
Without missing a beat,
Cristiano Ronaldo cologne from Amazon.
Cologne? For a 6-year-old? Are you sure?
He nods.
What if it arrives and it’s stinky?
It won’t be. Ronaldo always smells
better than everybody all the time.
My bad. I learn something every day.

@Home Studio – 339th poem of the year

More Silly Julian: