And it got me thinking about what else I’ll never get back.
I can’t pick up the phone and call my best friend to tell her.
Checkers will never again wiggle his (not very) little body next to mine on the couch.
I’ve never been able to talk to my father about anything besides
The dog. And as I mentioned, the dog is dead.
Grinding, concrete dust flying, endless noise
Whine of leveling compound mixing
Now it’s dusty, humid, and close
Sawing, pounding, more racket
Four days two late nights long
Suddenly, silence
and then we see
at long last
new wood
floors
You give of yourself
effortlessly
impossible magnitudes
solving our problems
soothing our pain.
You refuse to rest
there’s so much you want to do
for us.
The pressure
to which you subject yourself
would crack me
like the brown eggshells
discarded
while the golden yolks you cook slowly
(Alton Brown’s way)
simmer in butter.
And although the kids don’t love them
as they used to
I’ll always treasure
every–single–thing
you do for us.
I hope
one day
you can see yourself
how we do
resplendent and breathtaking
tirelessly striving
towards the best life we could dream of.
You are the centerpiece
the glue
the brains and the heart
the Fertile Crescent
you gave life
to our family.
The way that hugged the knobs and wood
and threaded through emerald shade
led from home and back. A church
the road’s start (or end) conveyed.
A smear of years–I return and search
for the landmark but find a scorch
of straight lanes through treeless land–
a highway, no curves, no church.
Unrecognizeable heartland
is not the winding way I planned.
I am not lost, but a little afraid–
I know where I’m going but not where I am.
(A rubaiyat after Frost)
My daily drill for the skill
Sarah once felt a small nick.
When she looked, she found a small tick.
She saw with her eye,
right there on her thigh,
the seed for the damn limerick.
She watched it swell and grow big.
It gorged on her blood like a pig.
She sucked down some air,
sat down in a chair,
and pulled out her tweezers to dig.
She shouted, “Now you’ll come out!
Of that, there is really no doubt!”
She dug and she plucked
(and the bug was soon fucked)
then she flushed it to swim with the trout.
What happened
(never happened)
Catch my d
r
i
f
t
?
Follow me?
(follow me)
As you s i f t
(silently)
through photos
(never taken)
and sentiments
(never spoken)
Remember
(to forget)
Forget
(and keep forgetting)
Remember
(what happened)
Never happened
(catch me)
But in dreams
(I’m falling)
Always f
a
l
l
i
n
g
(Follow me?)
Let freedom ring as mighty as our liberty bell.
The people sing: Give me liberty, or give me death!
Let freedom ring across highs and lows, above and below
all lands, all people, with all pursuits of happiness.
Crack, the liberty bell groans, a snap in its exterior,
an undetected defect. Let freedom ring! The people demand,
behind the bell jar with no sound, nothing.
This bell is merely symbolic, the government says,
ushering the people to ring their king instead. No kings,
the people protest, no dictators! Their diction is lost
in the noise of uncertain revolution. Let freedom ring,
our founding fathers say. Give me liberty, or give me death.
my father acts like
he wants to fix things
i try to be nocturnal,
where there are no words,
the image terrifies.
