Dad, too, had been a child of deprivation by David Q. Hutcheson-Tipton

He is a traveling salesman child
of the Great Depression who,
thank God, stopped traveling
(much) by the time I was 13.

Before him Pap-Pap, a jovial giant,
had been an overseer for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The boys at the firehall he & Dad had floored one summer
appreciated his largesse.

“Another round for everyone!” he’d boom.

Na-Na, slight as a rail
& rail tie sturdy,
sent Dad as a boy
into bars after Pap-Pap

to try to get him
to come home
before his paycheck was spent—

David Q. Hutcheson-Tipton is proud to appear again in Red Eft Review. His work has also been in Lothlórien Poetry Journal, Poem Alone, and dadakuku.com. He and his family enjoy dogs, good food, good friends, each other, and travel.