Written for my son, May 17, 1984 – October 19, 2016.

Today’s genesis met
the evening’s prior spell
when the small well-made bed
collided with bounding thoughts
I pushed away which brought
the silence of that moment
(and all the others

Elizabeth your smile
moved our mornings
to a space we could not reach
yet longed to touch;
we leaned much closer
to your full and throaty laugh,
wrapping like a

Last night
(between the moon’s shadows
and your curtains dark)
the bedded form –
your body next to mine –
so obscure so foreign;
a country never visited,
yet so