Ed Zahniser’s most recent poem to appear here was “The Ruby Yacht of Homer Kayak” (November 2018).

My Early Struggles with Kryptonite
By Ed Zahniser

First it was my thumb I couldn’t keep out
of my mouth, so it shrank a bit—no lie—
not matching my other thumb just as years
later my right arm would way out-muscle my left
over a summer’s long days dipping ice cream
and throwing fast-pitch softball evenings.

Then it was diapers that even after I quit
dirtying them I just could not keep them dry
and when at last I did sort out my plumbing
I assumed—which makes an ass of u and me—
that would be the end of it, of being pampered
but that turned out prophetic of my prostate.

Next was not talking in bed after” lights out.”
We four kids—I was the youngest—all slept
in one room on bunk beds. They’d get me
to jabbering while talking themselves until they
heard a parent on the stairs. They kept their signal
secret, so I got caught talking and was spanked.

If report cards reprise home habits, talk remained
my addiction throughout grade school, before
teacher narratives gave way to naked letter grades.
“Eddie would do much better,” went the usual report.
“if he didn’t enjoy talking to his friends so much.”
Now therapists press me to open up, to talk.