FATHERHOOD - REV ROAD AND STREECAR

the delicate noise of their laughter, the look of their tulip-soft skin and of ​their two sunny skulls

as fragile as eggshell made a terrible contrast to the ​feel of biting steel and shuddering pulp

they feel asleep

like children

and it seemed to him now that no single moment of his life had ever contained​ a better proof of manhood than that, if any proof were needed

holding that​ tamed submissive girl and saying, oh my lovely: oh my lovely while she promised ​she would bear his child."​

he found it hard to keep his voice

from thickening into a sentimental husk

he felt as if he were sinking helplessly into the cushions

and the papers and the ​bodies of his children like a man in quicksand

but michael was doing the best he could

and his was the widest smile

nor did their father's homecoming

do much to help

feigning great interest in whatever her parents were saying, though afterwards

waiting for bedtime she would sometimes go off quietly by herself and suck her ​

thumb

watching from the doorway, frank's eyes grew

as round as his daughter's

the children were staring blankly at a cartoon bulldog who brandished a spiked​ club as

he chased a cartoon cat through the wreckage of a cartoon house.

"he gave up trying to control his face, which now hung

aching with joy over her ​shoulder

As if having children

were a kind of punishment

It was that he was going to have another child,

and he wasn't all that sure ​that he wanted one

Oh too bad. I thought I'd read

them the funnies

you must give him a pretty bad time, if making babies

is the only way he can ​

prove he's got a pair of balls

spend the rest of your life hiding

behind that maternity dress

My mommy's in heaven and

we had dinner in a restaurant

Right after the funeral they took

the kids back up to Pittsfield with them

bitten down nails that had never really

had a chance to grow

"He thought then

of his father's hands

no amount of time or forgetfulness

had ever dimmed their image"​

the challenge to loosen one big fist

never suceeding

He could picture them only as flickering caricatures

of the twenties, the playboy and the flapper

I mean it's a miracle to me that you could

survive a childhood like that

which had a net value of two or three cents

and had been saved for years because 'My father gave it to me.'"

Looked remarkably alike

and remarkably like Milly

did other men feel distaste

at the sight of their own children? (shep)

he could have described it in all honesty

as a deep twinge of pleasure (shep)

a man has to take an interest in his wife's affairs

– especially now she's going to have a baby

luxurious sobbing

"find the opening of her blouse

Oh I hope candles are

going to glow in his life

well it's a red letter night for us both

You having an oil-millionaire and me having a baby

He falls to his knees on the steps and presses his face to her belly

curving a little with maternity