A History of Fatherhood

The girl in the wind

will carry the moon for him.

The moon will carry the girl

with the man fighting the wind

carrying the girl and the moon

against a wind that won’t let go.

The man in the dirt

will bury the girl in the moon

with the wind at his back

holding the shovel burying

the girl in the moon with her

hands all over her dress.

The man in the loss

collected in the dress can’t move,

can still speak but won’t, not

to the moon reminding him of her

in the quiet where only the dirt

can know exactly what it’s doing.