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Do
Paul Hostovsky

”I’ll do the portobello omelette
with bacon and swiss,” says my son
to the waiter. And when the waiter leaves

I say, “Do? What happened to have?
You aren’t going to do anything—
they’re going to do it in the kitchen
for you. Then you’re going to have it.”

”Dad, the language is changing,
dude. It’s alive. People say do now.
All my friends say it. You can say it, too.”

”I will never say do,” I say.
And he shrugs as if to say have
it your way. Then he checks his phone.

”Do you have to always be doing that?” I say.
”Doing what?” he says.
”That,” I say, pointing to the phone.
”Can’t we have a normal conversation

the way normal people do?”
”You just said do, Dad. You’re
such a doodad.” And smiling triumphantly,
he puts his phone away. And gives me my due.

—
Paul Hostovsky’s latest book of poems is Mostly (FutureCycle Press, 2021). His poems have won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net Awards, and have been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writer’s Almanac.

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