KG Newman is a 2012 Arizona State University graduate and sports writer for The Denver Post. His first two poetry collections, While Dreaming of Diamonds in Wintertime and Selfish Never Get Their Own, are available on Amazon.

Clear Head

We cancel our cells and cable
just in time for summer
and only keep the home phone,
and even when it rings
I never know who it is
until answering, BBQ smoke
breezing through open
kitchen windows to a family calendar
where nothing’s penciled in
other than stain the fence, which
will be good for me and the kids
to skip the cartoons
to take that one head on,
a right of passage for earning
afternoon ice cream and
the first sharp moment
of a warming sober season.