A cold-ass spring, warriors and bureaucrats, and cool small towns - the Friday poem roundup

What I wrote Wed, 4/9 to Fri, 4/11

Happy Friday, friends. Hope you were able to check out Wednesday’s live chat! But, the daily poems roll on—three days worth. Let’s get into it.

4/9/25
What did New England do?
Who did she
   rub the wrong way 
At a geography networking luncheon 
Decades ago 
To get the cold, unforgiving spring 
We always get?
The kind of spring 
That laughs at your
   light jacket 
And seeps into your bones,
Making an otherwise sunny day 
   profoundly unpleasant.
Time to make up, kiss up, suck up,
Whatever you have to do, spring.
Cuz my wife
   has had it with you. 

I grew up with southern New Hampshire’s sorry excuse for a spring—cold, cloudy days in the upper 40s with the occasional 64º day dangled in front of us like a carrot in front of a hungry horse. But the wife came up in central New York, where springs are far more humane. Autumn, though, is worth the price we pay in spring.

4/10/25
You are the warrior,
I am the bureaucrat.
You strategize,
Mark points 
   of attack and defense.
I fill out forms,
Talk to
   funders and insurers.
You teach our little one 
That she is unlimited,
And the world is hers 
   to conquer.
I draft emails 
To make our case
   that the world pay attention.
You wield a sword.
I wield a pen.

Being parents of a child with special needs requires a divide-and-conquer mentality. You each have strengths that you bring to the table to give your kiddo the best chance to succeed in the world.

In our case, one of us needs to be the fighter, the warrior, the big-picture thinker. The person who sees the potential of what our daughter can be and doesn’t hesitate to hold her teachers, her school administrators, her therapists to the highest standard in helping her achieve it.

And one of us needs to be the one who drafts emails, fills out forms, sits in zoom meetings, and does the bureaucrat’s work of turning the world slowly so it moves in our direction.

4/11/25
You and your sister 
Always wanted to live
In a
   cool small town 
An hour from a
   cool big city.
How lucky for me 
That I met and married a
   cool cute you
And had a
   cool incredible kid 
In a
   cool small town 
An hour from a
   cool big city.
Someday I hope to be 
   cool enough
   to hang 
   with you 
   here.

Before I ever met either of them, the wife and her sister wound up in our wonderful little New Hampshire town which is just over an hour away from an adorable New England city.

See you again on Monday for a very special post (and our first paid subscriber-only video). :)