Glass

Some broken glass
a child's tender foot
and the night is torn
with a single note--

in the moment I am calm
but a Later waits for me
full of self-punishment
remorse for useless pain

it means nothing; will be
forgotten, everywhere,
except in the seared neurons
of my own spinning mind

I only wanted to show her
how to hold the nighttime toad
who'd come out to stare at us--
and I still do--but now I have this

will carry it in me forever
like the scar that will shrink
tiny on her adult foot: some
lover will idly trace it and ask--

but only her father will recall it,
sweetheart of her distant future:
vividly, the scream still ringing
for decades in my ears







may 2023