to write by. A lamp I know I should switch on.
Soda crackers. Hot water with lemon. Dishes in the sink,
few enough I can put them off a while. In the afternoon
I’ll call my mother and we’ll talk about nothing,
the weather. I’ll ask if it’s raining there and she’ll say yes.
We’ll share some news about family or football,
and maybe reminisce a bit: my childhood, my father,
her life before us both. But mostly the rain,
which will lighten and finally stop around dinner
while my wife and I are filling the house with our talk
so we will not notice the change until hours later,
sitting in bed. One of us will lower their book
and mention it in passing. Or maybe
it will still be raining then, so we’ll say nothing
and in the morning we won’t be certain
if it ever stopped, or when it did
and when it started up again.
Love, fidelity, etc.
I do not wear you
when I shower, when I sleep,
when playing sports or making things,
my knuckles thick in dirt or grease,
though I wear you now on the hand
behind my head, which tilts it to the page.
Remember when I lost you
those six months beneath the driver’s seat?
You must have hidden in my pocket—
the one inside the other—
and when I wriggled out the keys
you ventured too.
Folks think you represent
but we both know you’re
up there in the darkness of my hair
or, one time, waiting in the car.
When I rediscovered you
we were both prodigals’ fathers
grieving our sons,
though it was my hand, of course,
reached out in welcome,
my mouth that rushed the story to my wife.
Yes, you arrived with my marriage.
You’ll go at the end, off to some necklace or pouch
or you’ll linger years in the earth
until all you encircle is earth
and a scavenger prospects you up,
as I did, from the muck.
It wasn’t much. I was in the field.
I knelt. My hands were bare.
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