How Far

When we pull out
Dad tells us to check the mileage
and take the back roads to town
so he can show us
how he walked to work one day
when we were babies.

He walked through a snowstorm
as high as his knees
because he was the only one
with keys to the machine shop.

When we get there
we forget to check the miles
but the lawyer talks slow,
makes it easy.

He says to decide now
machines or not,
so nobody fights.
We even make jokes
until Dad’s oxygen gets low.

On the way home
we see it was eight miles
on a road,
that wasn’t paved back then
It was all
uphill.