Kin

Did I ever tell you the one about the big rubber penis?
A novelty item my grandfather had sewn behind his kitchen apron
He'd lift up the garment and expose his depravity
My dad and my uncle would cringe
The first and last time their girlfriends would meet the old man

Years later we'd sit around the table getting drunk
Laughing about the ogre we all called "pop"
Just ghost I saw lying in a bed in "that room" down the hall
Too afraid to go in, I'd just quietly eat my supper from newspaper on the floor
"That's not funny," I realize, "Tell the one about the rubber penis!"

"Two more Dos Equis," my father would order
None of us dared say pop was depraved
Because the apples don't fall far from the trees
Gramps loved his artificial genitals
We all held dear to our prosthetic hearts

--Shenandoah Lynd