Let Me In

           "Bang!"

"Bang! Bang!"

The sound came from the rear entry, a small fist hitting a battered aluminum storm door.

"Bang!"

"Let me in!"

The door always stuck in the frame, he didn't have the strength to open it by himself.

"Let me in!"

I let him wait a bit, I grabbed the camera and exposed a couple of frames.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Throughout the time he was growing up, I had kept him at a distance. I was working or, what was even worse were those times I was distracted with my own idle amusements.

"LET ME IN!"

His school achievements, his races with the cross-country ski team. The trips he and his brother took, with their mother, but not with me. I was always on the other side of the door.

"Bang! Bang!"

And then he was gone, first to college, then grad school, and now far beyond any door that I could open.

"...let me in..."

Always on the other side of that door.

"... let me in... let me in... dad..."