I sway left, I sway right
Cradling you in my arms
Shushing like the waves
Wishing you goodnight.

I move left, I move right
Dodging your little hands
As we tickle and tumble
Play with no end in sight.

I teach left, I teach right
One day you’ll just get it.
Shoes, socks and gloves
Dad duties become light.

I’ll go left, you’ll go right.
You’ll text me you’re well
You’re on...

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ABSENT FATHER

_____________

The father of

Seven children

Is absent from home.

Seven children are

Missing a playmate,

Missing a teacher,

Missing a provider.

He was lured

Away from his

Personal kingdom, beyond

The wildlife sanctuary.

A rifle,

A crossbow

Hastened his subtraction

From the dense 

Equation of life.

Now the royal

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Straddling a life between town and country,

I remember you once stood on a snake.

You never saw it as we were shouting,

Until you moved and it slithered away.

Once you walked into a concrete column,

As I told you to hurry and catch up.

But you were focused and a little solemn,

Just searching for green anoles close up.

So many times you fell into a pond,

And I had to pull...

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In the grate, the shivering flames
hungrily wrap their lips around logs
The boards above me creek
my wife haunting somewhere
the baby's hands reach out
wave before its sleeping eyes

The wind is howling...

The smiles on our faces as we galloped down the aisle
making sense of scattered photograph moments
but I can't remember why
can't think of anything but waiting
and doing everything...

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I live six hours in the future,

Relative to family and other loved ones.

I wake each morning to news of the world

As the Atlantic Ocean shields them

From dreadful awareness a bit longer.

I know the missiles are airborne,

The tsunami approaches,

The revolution has kicked off,

Or just that the avocado yield was low.

I’m fighting the urge to scream,

To call, to...

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I found a picture of you in my arms,

Sleeping securely, safe from harm,

As you knew it, anyway.

Your trust for me was complete,

You wanted for nothing

And thought of my love only

As often as a bird thinks of sky.

You didn’t yet know people

Can go away or even die.

I know how things changed,

But I can’t bear to think of it.

I picture you now, with your love

...

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