little thunderbolt

E stumbles out of bed, hair mussed half-asleep,
Bee-lines to the toilet, yawning as he goes,
Wearing only his miknoot, his SpongeBob underwear,
He wanders into the living room to watch T.V.
The boy rules his roost like no one else,
Has his parents and siblings at his beck and call,
Comes and goes, getting into everything,
Might be an issue if he weren’t so cute.
Yesterday he tore up all my cigarettes,
Announced to me that I could no longer smoke,
I was more upset about the mess he made,
Couldn’t argue with his logic.
He argues and orders a bit too much,
But he’s at his most dangerous when he’s nice,
Turns on the charm and he gets whatever he wants,
Gives you that disarming smile and all is forgiven.
He was the physical manifestation of concern,
Upon hearing that I was injured,
“Daddy, you have boo-boo leg?”
followed by “Daddy needs a chair with wheels.”
The latter more out of frustration,
Because I can’t jump around and wrestle,
Do any of the million and one things,
That he wants me to do for and with him.
He cracks us up when he tries to dance,
Looks like Snoopy having a seizure,
But he dances with joy and abandon,
Living fully in the here and now.
Four-year-old has everything figured out,
Hanging out at the temple, playing with the dog,
He asks everyone where they’re going,
Said, “Hey, where’s the sticky rice?!”
Ajahn tells me the Thai kids are much the same,
They make themselves right at home,
The Buddhist temple is a place to play,
Twenty-seven acres of fields and trees.
I remind him that the monks do ceremonies,
He looks at them, with anticipation,
Waiting for them to do, not just be,
“They not do ceremony, they just chililn.”
He uses our slang, uses Odawa and Lao,
All mixed together, all mixed up,
In some kind of east coast accent,
Not sure if it’s Brooklyn or Bronx.
He talks about “Noo Yawk” quite a bit,
For someone so young, who was only there once,
Nearly two years ago, and he always points it out,
When he sees buildings or bridges in movies or T.V.
“Little E” we called him, not so little anymore,
his pediatrician thought it was “Little Italy”,
But his name is Odawa, means “Thunderbolt,”
Or “Thunder Clap” and an apt name it is.