I still have our picture
Tucked away in a drawer
Me just a little squirt
Smiling with a fishing pole
And you with your tackle box
Standing so big and proud and tall
With your hand on my shoulder
Like you loved me.
It is our footprint in the universe
The last remaining ghost of us.
That and myself.
People say I look like you all the time
Though they never talk about you
Around my mama.
She says you never existed
And then forbids me from speaking more
So these are the only ways
To tell folks we were once here
Together.
I was still young when you left
I don't know where you went or why
All I recall from that day
Is you hugging me
And calling to me
That you'd be around sometime
When I got older
As you disappeared
In a cloud of dust.
But that cloud of dust
Was 10 years and counting
And I never saw you again
On this side of Heaven.
Mama bought another house
And somebody else stepped in
To be my daddy.
I heard some strangers
Came to be your new family.
When you take
Your small son fishing this year
Will you also be proud of him?
Will he smile for the camera
Like I did?
Does he laugh like I used to?
Does he have a big imagination?
You took our car with you,
Does he sit in my old seat
And see the dinosaurs in the clouds?
Does he slow down walks
To look at birds and bugs?
Do you call him " little man " too?
Will he look like you?
Do you sometimes see mama
In his mother?
And when he squeals
Over his first fish
And grabs your hands in glee
Will you take a moment to listen
To the dying breaths of a past summer's day
When another little boy
Had done the same?
YOU ARE READING
From The Remnants Of Dreams
Poetry"And I will say my goodbyes some starry night and wrap you in the silver hues of moonlight. So when you wake up you remember me as a beautiful dream too surreal for your reality." - Someone I do not know.
