Poetry: Charlie Brown at 42 –Chad Parenteau

Charlie Brown at 42

There’s enough thread
hanging off the tree
that thwarted your kites
over and over
to do the job.

You’ve hung less fatally
from here before
with equally little fare.

What then? A funeral,
the childhood friend
you hoped was too young
to see through you entirely.
He could give your eulogy,
wife holding his hand
to keep fingers away
from his mouth.

His sister, armchair therapist,
will make a scene over
you not consulting her
and your non-reply
when she asked if you wanted
to sleep with her.

Your sister and your friend
could finally talk,
maybe hook up.
Why not? It’d be interesting
not like when you lay awake
amongst your unread books
at three AM, prayed for a witching.

Maybe your lost dog
will return, become you,
with every badge of honor,
every implausible wartime story
and bragging right he ever had
come true. All he needed
was your catalytic absence.

–

–

Chad Parenteau is the current host and organizer of the Stone Soup Poetry series now based in Cambridge MA at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery. He has had work recently published in Off The Coast, Amethyst Arsenic and the anthology Multiverse. His first full-length poetry collection, Patron Emeritus, was published by FootHills Publishing in 2013. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine.