Hiram Larew’s most recent poem to appear here was “Trash Truck” (December 2017).

Listen to Hiram Larew perform “Grandsons” here:

Grandsons
By Hiram Larew

I’m sitting four rows behind watching my
Grandsons from the back.
They’re leaning into each other at a slant that may
Turn into love before long.
One is twirling the pencil like a baton
All with later in mind.
The other is kind of listening to the performer and jotting a few things down.
When they look at each other I see
Their remarkable profiles in dim light—
Glasses trim, nibbed chins, and toothbrush hair.
Over the evening’s hour I fully define enthrallment.
And when the music in my ears begins to end
When goodnights start to swoop overhead like swallows
Somehow these two evaporate
Both of my grandsons
Into the crowd.
The wings that they were
Fly off
Over the May fields and
Through those distant years inside me.