Joshua St. Claire
Depth of Field
We’re very involved grandparents. Spending time with our grandchildren is the most important thing in our lives. We’ll show you some pictures of our little darlings. Liam is our little football player. He’s been on the field since he was five years old. Now, he’s the QB on the local travel team. We’ve been all over to see him…Florida, Texas, New York, Illinois, Maine. We even bought waterproof, solar-powered, heated blankets so we can be in the stands in any weather and watch him play. His brother, Noah, is a star soccer forward. His team went all the way to States three times. We had to travel to Erie to see him play last year, but it was so worth it to see him score the winning goal. Olivia is the ice skater. Her coach, Dmitri—he’s an ex-Olympian from Moldova—thinks she can be a world champion. She’s only eleven, but she practices twelve hours a day. We had to get a passport because she has been to thirteen different countries for exhibitions, training, and competitions, and we always tag along. She practices so much that she can’t even attend regular school, so we help her parents homeschool her. Her brother, Elijah, is also on the ice. He plays goalie for the southern district hockey team. They practice at the Giant Center on the same ice as the Bears. We go watch him whenever we’re in town. We got to see the locker rooms and everything, just like any other VIP. Emma and Charlotte are sisters—only a year apart. They play tennis. Last year at Regionals, they were the two top seeds and ended up battling each other for gold and silver. Emma won. I told Charlotte to try harder next year. Soon, Emma will be in college, so she is running out of chances to beat her. Having so many sports stars as grandchildren gives us true peace. Because of the sports, they’ll get into good colleges, have vibrant careers, and make meaningful memories for their whole lives. It’s so wonderful—our biggest worry is whether or not they go pro.
snoot
the overly specific directions
for the family portrait
We do have three more grandsons—Cole, Cy, and Anselm. We just don’t understand them. They’re always wasting time. One day, they’re building a fort. The next day, they are writing songs and poems or drawing pictures. They make up stories and act them out. They bake cookies and brownies. They watch the clouds go by. They listen to the birds. They plant flowers in the garden. They lack focus. You wouldn’t believe what they wanted for Christmas last year. A spice they haven’t tried yet, origami paper, a cloud atlas (who knew such a thing existed?), oil paints, a lyre (or was it a lute?), and the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe. We just sent them sports equipment like we do every Christmas—cricket bats, quoits, and a badminton net, rackets, and shuttlecocks. We try new sports every year. Something is bound to stick eventually. Spending time with them is just so exhausting for us, and we’re so busy doing the important stuff with our other grandchildren. Those three don’t play sports, so, of course, we don’t have a reason to visit. Can you imagine it? Kids that don’t play sports? I’m worried about them, to be honest. I guess I can’t expect all of my grandchildren to be successful, but, as hard as it is, I suppose we do try to love them all the same.
bokeh
the faces that fade
into the background
About the Author
Joshua St. Claire is an accountant who works as a finance executive in rural Pennsylvania. His work has been published in several journals, including contemporary haibun online, Mayfly, The Heron’s Nest, and hedgerow.