999 Z38

so goddamn light
thought the child
couldn’t be a ton
thought a child
wouldn’t be a portrait
a thousand grieving fathers

always worried about the shaking
but we lied down for so long
our heads became boulders
and the child
became an image
a thousand grieving fathers

stiff as a board
asleep with legs crossed
nose to the skylight
a cat curled on the ankles
a living painting
a thousand grieving fathers

on a hammock
she said
I’m on a hammock
my legs look just like
my father’s
just a shadow of my thoughts
the way he flew across
the country to vanish
vanish deep in my thoughts
a memory
a thousand grieving fathers

Graceland meadows
scared the taste isn’t the same
cradle replaced by bookshelves
overturned lamp
as if we didn’t know
what was there
a sculpture of wood
a thousand grieving fathers