This is an excerpt from my chapbook SAINT JUDE, QUIXOTE, AND MY OLD MAN, published by Ungulate Press. One of a series of poems that represent my attempts to understand a man I didn't get much of a chance to meet.
hanging onto nothing
The day
my mother left him
I watched my old man
standing upon the
redwood deck
he'd built
a summer ago
I watched him there
arms crossed into a hug
as he hung upon
all the sunshine
his hands
could possibly hold
he stood there
until darkness dropped
an early curtain,
then he opened his empty arms
to the moths beating
their fuzzygrey heads
against the porch light,
knelt down and wept dew
onto unseen grass
until the sun cried up.
Want to review or comment on this poem?
Need a FREE Reader Membership?
Reviews of "hanging onto nothing"
Reviewed by Susan Cook-Jahme (Reader)
Reviewed on May 29, 2003
This is a deep write - good poem.
Reviewed by Meg Leigh (Reader)
Reviewed on May 17, 2003
Very good poem. LOt's of sharp images here. Nice.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Taylor (Reader)
Reviewed on May 15, 2003
Wow...really packs a wallop. Well done. Relationships are difficult to understand, especially our parent's relationship, yet it is the model for our own unless we change something. Bravo. Fine work.
Share
Print
Save
Follow
