Stop! Stop and Look Around...The Partridge Family and more...in poetry?

Today, Sunday, poetry continued...new section highlighted in bold at end. On a weekend when many families gather, this narrative poem looks at a family. Not a happy family. But do you agree (with Tolstoy) -- all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way? From the author of LIE, the must-read young adult novel about the aftermath of a hate crime -- from St. Martin's Press.
The Idiot Box
My father called itthe Idiot Boxlike it was a nickname, orterm of endearment. I was twelve. He called me Toots, a nickname, a term of endearment.Sometimes,   Ignoramus.  T.V. was always the Idiot Box.                        *The Idiot  Box: knobs, broken off,a pair of pliers plucked the channels.The Idiot Box:black and white,rabbit ears,sculpted wire coat hangerscaught the signals.The Idiot Box: a Buddha on a woman'slong dresser, my mother's dresser,along the wall in the living room,bowed to a pair of plaid easy chairs,and a burnt orange couch. In front of The Idiot Box:my mother peedthroughthe bottom of her wheelchair and was taken away,a bad puppy,out of sight.            *
5, 7, 9 and 11,the four channels of the Idiot Box.  Don't think we were far from the City.We were the 'Queen of the Sound,'45 minutes from Broadway, home of Tom Paine, author of "Common
Sense," a city founded by Huguenots, who fledFrance and religious persecution – New Rochelle;an intersection of past and future,a 
T.V. antennae perched precariously on our roof because who the hell needsmore than four channels of television,
anyway?We didn't.             *We could watch,  easy,four or five hours of T.V. every day."The Courtship of Eddie's Father." Families could be happy with only a father

if they had a butler;
"The Brady Bunch."Fathers and mothers could remarryif they had even numbers of girls and
boys; 
Stop!  Stop!  And look
around:
"The Partridge Family." Pile us on a bus and we could be famous, live happy,if we could only sing. 
Stay tuned.  More to come. Truly, author of LIE
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Published on April 08, 2012 16:01
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Caroline Anna Bock Writes

Caroline Bock
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