actor for everyone's dad

he's the actor that plays everyone's dad

getting older, and older, and older until

he's no longer the actor who plays everyone's dad

until he's the actor who's dead

he changes every couple of years

he changes when he's dead

i see him in the movies sometimes

changing, with a beard, with no beard

smiling, drinking, kissing a woman

accomplishing something big

haggard grey hair,

no matter who he is,

we will need him for

when our dad is gone

chromatic insomnia

its all blues

and sea greens

and some other complicated word for it

on some nights, the whole house stays awake

the windows sigh and roll over

the heaters have indigestion

the clocks keep count of every last minute,

but no one talks about it until later.

later, when everything is crimson

the vocabulary is less intimidating.