Monday's Poetry: "Family Vacation"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Annual vacations are a time-honored tradition in many families - those with the time and financial means to flee their normal routines for some family-together time at a hideaway far away from home.

Normally family vacations take place in the summer when the kids are home from school.  This year, of course, is different.  The kids have already been home from school for several weeks due to the on-going coronavirus pandemic, and, in many cases, so have their loving parents.  And, at this point at least, the promise of any getaway during the summer months seems to be little more than a pipe dream.

The kids are going stir-crazy, the parents are going stir-crazy, and there seems to be no relief in sight.  In these strange and troubled times, many parents might identify with the plight of the weary traveler in the following poem as he seeks refuge in a stall in the men's room of a Roy Rogers Restaurant.


Family Vacation
by John Kenney

This is relaxing
I think to myself
on the first day
of our vacation
as I hide
in the men's room
of a Roy Rogers 
at a rest stop
just off bumper-to-bumper I-95
while the kids
continue fighting
with tennis racquets
in the back seat.
And only five more hours to go.
I don't want to leave this place
I whisper aloud.
Neither do I
says the man in the next stall.