OPTICAL ILLUSION

who could these trousers belong to?

carefully laid out on my parents’ bed

ridiculously short compared to my own legs

at first glance appearing that of a child’s

yet with closer inspection

style more akin to the elderly

surely not the same man

who at five feet tall once towered above me

sometimes in angry retribution

laid me face down across his own legs

though more often sitting happily on his lap

to read a story

© 2001 Chris Sorrenti