I think about them more than I did
before they were married before they were parents when my
mother tap danced when my father played
violin my mother had boyfriends when my father
was engaged before my mother to Sophie
when my mother was engaged to Irwin
when they were young and didn’t know what it meant
not to be young not to be free before they had a house
and kids and Friday nights at the Beth Israel Synagogue Center
before they grew middle aged and then old and before
I had the chance to ask happened.
I think many of us have deep regrets about what we did not ask our parents about their lives before our egocentric selves were born.
This is the stuff of Covid dreams.