Taking Flight

First published in Shamrock #45, March 2020. Originally written in March of 2007, with revisions in 2009 and 2013.

I have a walking alarm clock. It’s loud. This morning it bounds up to the edge of my bed. It yells, “Wake up, daddy!”

“I’m awake,” I mumble to my son.

“Wake up your eyes!” he replies.

I lie still for a moment, but I know it’s useless. I can no longer resist my three-year-old fire alarm. So I rub out the night and slowly wake up my eyes.

“Good morning, daddy,” Thomas announces, pulling at the sheets until I swing my legs out of bed.

“G’morning,” I sigh.

And so begins our Sunday, for which we have a family trip planned to the flight museum.

soggy corn flakes—

my son tells me

to put a smile in my mouth