What We Leave Behind
My father drank salt water mixed with air
And sacrificed his legs and calloused hands at the altar of the sea,
So that it may split in half to give me the life he had only dreamed of.
At the Reception
Everyone else had gone to dance
around a man and woman lifted on chairs,
into the sky of the future of their love,
when he pushed away his plate, rolled up
his white sleeve, showed me the number
on his arm and rubbed it
as if asking it to grant him
three wishes.
The Book of the Dead Man (Peacetime)
If and when the war is over, the dead man’s days will seem longer.
Ghazal: Like a Prayer
We cry out for peace like a prayer.
We yank weeds on our knees like a prayer.
Rays crisp Renée’s pepper plants to umber;
sprouts speak their final pleas like a prayer.
What You Thought You Lost
Image: “Terry’s Keys” by Kim Beckham. “What You Thought You Lost” was written by Wendy Videlock for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2024, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
Political Action
Every time it snows, she walks twelve blocks
and makes a snow angel in front of the Supreme Court
for her son who was shot and killed
two blocks away seven years ago by a boy
who was shot and killed three weeks later.