The rabbit has stolen
The big bear's pointy red hat.
The frog looks longingly
At its evaporating pond.

A powerful glow comes
Off the sunflower

So everyone wears goggles.
My son rolls around in the ferns.

It seems he has overdosed
On sugar cookies.

Does he care about the bear's hat?
To him I am a ghost on a bicycle.

I remember my father's mouth
Reading aloud beneath his beard.

He is hiding in my face.
The toy cloud is filled with rain.



About this poem
"As a tri-generational 'daddy' poem, 'Toy Cloud' plays a game of tag from child to father to father. It's not exactly what [William] Wordsworth meant when he wrote that the child is father of man, but somehow the phrase seems to apply."
-Nathan Hoks

About Nathan Hoks
Nathan Hoks is the author of "The Narrow Circle" (Penguin, 2013). He teaches at the University of Chicago and lives in Chicago.

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The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2014 Nathan Hoks. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate