‘Eight and a Half (Going on Twenty)’ by Frank De Canio

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“Ha ha,” is all she gives her Dad
when he makes fun of what she said.
No more parental Galahad
who nightly carried her to bed.
He’s just a jaded humorist
who doesn’t even merit laughs
from her which once were numerous.
For now she deems such jibes are gaffes
in Daddy’s rearing. No expense,
with audible contractions of
the diaphragm, does she dispense
as she was wont to, as his dove.
Hence she who used to go gaga
instead grants him a barbed, “ha ha.”

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Born and bred in New Jersey, Frank De Canio worked in New York City for many years. He attends a Café Philo every other week in Lower Manhattan.