My Family Is Nuts  

My family is nuts.
My father is to my ears
the new John Coltrane
when he’s blowing
his tenor sax all
free and hot.

That’s not why
my father’s nuts.

He’s nuts because
he keeps wanting
to record the same
14 incredibly, moronically
outdated COVER SONGS,
burning a new
version of the
same CD
over and
over.

And my brother’s nuts
because he’s duty bound
to HELP my father
record these same
14 songs over
and over
again

with expensive equipment
he keeps buying while searching
for the “perfect sound”
for CDs heard
by very
few.

My sister isn’t nuts,
just a little dog crazy,
but what’s really crazy
is how close we
were growing up
and how now,
I don’t talk
to her near
enough.

And my mother’s nuts
because she’s a ticking time bomb.

Really.

A year ago, she was diagnosed
with breast cancer, had the lump
removed, and now she has
to see what the doctors
have to say about the
spots on her liver.

That’s not why my mom’s nuts.
She’s nuts because I swear
that if worse really came
to worse, she’d spend
the rest of her very
precious days
watching TV
with my Dad…

Perry Mason
and
Dallas.

“You know,” she told me
last night, “That’s one
well written show.”

So my family’s nuts
and I’m laughing
and crying as
I write this

because my family’s nuts
and I love them.

© 2006  Mark Kozub