farm kid

he jerked about the hospital bed

like a moth in the bottom of a porch lamp

 

family had become strangers

pictures on the wall, more strangers

a retirement party, a wedding, a grandchild’s baptism

a paper clipping with his grandchild’s namefarm kid

and one more picture, another stranger,

somewhat familiar—a boy, floppy ears, narrow face,

bow tie in a one-room schoolhouse

 

the man in the bed, his eyes

free from worry, looked like those of the kid

for the first time in seventy years

Published by

Patrick Dobson

Patrick Dobson was founded in 1962. He is a writer, scholar, ironworker, and poet who lives in Kansas City, MO. He is author of two books with the University of Nebraska Press, Seldom Seen: A Journey into the Great Plains (2009) and Canoeing the Great Plains: A Missouri River Summer (May 2015). Dobson is a work in progress until termination.

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