Decoding

By Bob McAfee

To my cousin, Vinny, sleeping over,

you and I were eight

beneath the covers

with our flashlights

and our Buck Rogers Decoder Rings.

We’d spin the outer dial

with its twenty-six letters

until M was over the A of the inner dial,

N above B,

O above C, and so on.

We wrote messages to each other

in code on a notepad

using an unsharpened pencil

with a nubby eraser,

rotating the dial

to decode one letter at a time.

Decades later

we are yet beneath the covers,

with different partners,

without the flashlights,

with different rings,

passing digital messages

using braille fingers,

still decoding.

---

Bob McAfee is a retired software consultant who lives with his wife near Boston.

He has written nine books of poetry, mostly on Love, Aging, and the Natural World. 

For the last several years he has hosted a Wednesday night Zoom poetry workshop. 

Since 2019, he has had 190 poems selected by 75 different publications, including 

one poem in "The Rush". Two poems nominated for Best of the Net. His website, 

www.bobmcafee.com, contains links to all his published poetry.