my father’s mid-life crisis
I should have known that the car was a dress--
Money is only spent well on despair.
The masks we wore, the cures we’ll never know
Causing the growing pains to flex a long limb
The same clam who boasted shiny children
Porsche tires cease and put the drive in reverse
He crawls back to minivans on hands and knees.
He comes stuffed, ready to be sewn again
The threads reach out with unraveling arms
Our last summer knew of cold winters
Snow covers pillowing each broken heart
Across the park the wet water stretched
In a year her tears fell into your eyes
In a year, rising ponds shallow and hem
Freedom frontiers were roamed and exhausted
The time apart coalesces our new gown
Never did we think to miss close corners
And calls from each pole cross woven through space
Sameness for miles, so the mannequin strips
Naked as dolls, trying to see through glass
Again