I show my dad my new winter coat
I raise my arms 360
so he can see the back too.
He unzips it and peers inside
like a cop patting down a felon,
inspecting the coat like he\'s buying a horse,
checking the teeth and hooves,
and the zip-up pockets.
I hand him my printed stories and poems,
he puts his reading glasses on
and I\'m twelve years old again
and he\'s helping me with my maths homework,
I never could get the hang of maths,
words not numbers always came more easily.
He likes my story as it has a beginning,
a middle and an end, but we disagree
if a word should be one word.
two words, or hyphenated.
Then comes the real test,
two glasses and a bottle of single malt whiskey.
We sip the fiery liquor,
sighing in delight as our throats burn.