New Poem Tonight: “To the Dark Who Follows Me After My Second Child is Born”

by | Aug 14, 2019 | Blog, My Poems

TO THE DARK WHO FOLLOWS ME
AFTER MY SECOND CHILD IS BORN:


Tell me they’d miss me. Tell me they love me, even 
on the days when my voice rises higher 

than the tide. Tell me they believe me when I say 
I love them to the moon and back—that same moon 

that pushes and pulls the shore. Strong and wicked thing, 
tell me what their life would be like without me. 

Tell me, if you can, how long 
they would remember me—how long until 

they stop saying my name 
at the dinner table. How long until 

they push my death to the deepest parts 
of themselves—

the aftershock of a gun wound or too many pills—

and then let it go. 

Tell me. 

The work of your voice coming from the backseat 
has been a recurring drone, and on 

the darker nights, I believe it. But I like to think, 
I like to think they would hear me calling 

from some windy terrain, their names rising 
over icy sheets like fresh steam. 

I hold onto that hope like love. 

I hold onto their love like a rope.