the younger generation
Z or X or millennials
are coupling without children,
begets now terminated at begot

we can only imagine our grandchildren now
their births and birthdays
holiday presents and road trips

I’m making a cake for my granddaughter
shes’ named after me, you know
and I drew hopscotch on the sidewalk in chalk for her to play

yesterday I built a blanket fort
under the ping pong table
for my grandson,
I named him Jack

I slept in that fort last night
until my hips hurt from the floor
and I had to go to the bathroom;
at least imaginary grandchildren aren’t disturbed by my midnight rumblings

perhaps if we had taken things
like climate change and school shootings
more seriously
our children would want children

instead, we use our imagination
that pretended the problem wasn’t ours
to pretend to have grandchildren that are
figments too young to go mad,
too soon to go sad