Lesbian Mom Hiking With Her Eight Year-Old Son

Hiking can be meditative; trick is

finding a pace and following it.

I’m not sure he hears me.

Passing granite outcrops,

we scramble over a fallen pine.

Mom, this is gonna mess with your pace,

and he stops to pee against a tree.

Echo Lake on our right, solid blue silence.

Pretty handy that you can pee like that.

I just love having a penis, he boasts.

More trees pass, rocks mark the way across a steam.

If you had a penis, I’d let you be…

Not quite hearing him I ask,

If I had a penis, you’d let me be your Dad?

No, if you had a penis I’d let you be in my band.

Oh well, that’s even better.