1.
She is just learning to string up words,
And I briefly worry that her first sentence
Will be some insult or party slang.
Days ago, a friend told me
That I shouldn’t let her watch
Such filth.

2.
The thought of Erin dolled up
In nightclub chic, ordering
Shots and pumping her fist
To some soulless house music
Is enough to send me scrabbling
For the remote.

3.
Still, each Thursday, we tune in,
And I watch these seven lie, cheat, fight.
Mostly, Erin plays with her toy phone,
Holding it up to her ear, saying
Hello, hello, hello in her still
Developing mumble.

4.
Everyone I know watches this show.
They mask their interest in irony
And anthropological intrigue.
They say that they watch
So they can laugh at
These people.

5.
Some nights, when the drama
Is fully wrought and there
Is yelling and punching and sex,
I hold Erin in my lap,
Tell her that judging is
The easy response.

6.
I do not wish this life for her,
But I also do not wish the other,
The detachment, the avoidance
Of anything not cloaked in
A casual dismissal of
Distant lives.