“My Mom Squats Down for Me” by Edwin Litts


He wondered if his date Mary had squatted down when pouring the food into the dog bowls.   He envisioned what her rear haunches would have looked like while doing that.  There is something very loving about that scene.  Seeing such utilitarian poses would always remind Adam of his beautiful mother, and how she would get on her haunches to help the younger him with his shoelaces, or to teach him how to button his coat.  There is something extremely reassuring  and loving indeed when listening to a mother’s knees crack as she squats to kiss him Good Bye in school on his first day of kindergarten.  He would remember seeing his mom approve of the young new kindergarten teacher.  He would nervously trust his mother’s judgement on this memorable day and would now begin to own the courage to say goodbye to her.  He would see his mother look back to him one final time as she exits his vacuous classroom, that memorable classroom with its high, grey, and presently sparse walls.  She would, with some slight apparent worry, but reassurance too, wave to him.  With wide open eyes and a tight smile beginning to soften she would then walk away, and then be out of sight.  Adam would return his gaze to his new teacher.  Holding Adam, she was on her haunches too.  Adam would approve of his genuinely smiling new teacher.  She possessed a young and honest face too.   He would see that huge green-colored artificial gem pinned to the front of her green dress, and he would become temporarily preoccupied with it.  The young Adam returns his glance to that soon-to-be-decorated grey classroom wall, closeby to where his mother had been standing, and he notices attached up high that very old wooden-encased clock.  With its white face and bold black Roman Numerals, the thin and sharply pointed clicking clockhands would tell him to begin his day.  All would be o.k.  All would be o.k. afterall.


Author is: married, father of two. U.S. Army Honorable Discharge, 1968-72. Bachelor of Professional Studies SUNY College of Technology, Utica, New York Summa Cum Laude 1979. M.S. Ed. The College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York 1983.

Ed enjoys writing in the early morning. He loves running (40 marathons completed) and playing sports with his boys. Also, he likes to garden with his wife; Ed’s not having too much of a green thumb, she allows him to cut the grass and rake the leaves only. Ed is thankful too for a good cup of morning coffee along with a slice of evening apple pie. The family loves their guinea pig and insomniac cat too.