Or (For Isaac)


And he took his father to the flame and his father mentioned
I’m not a goat
And the boy mentioned   no    you aren’t a goat
And the daddy mentioned     the place are the goats
And the boy mentioned    you’re a goat in the present day or you may be a goat
The daddy considered hybrid beasts and mentioned nothing
He appeared with love on the unusual little one he created
He considered how laborious it had been to maintain the boy alive
And when the boy led him down the loss of life path he saved pondering
I ought to be in cost
However I’m drained and I can’t do something to realize management
I’m crinkled, worn-out, sick of seeing
Issues get destroyed in my title
Do I thoughts that I is likely to be become another person’s burden?
Additionally, I love my son’s willpower
Somebody, the voice of X, instructed him to take me to the flame
Somebody critical, a reputable character,
Instructed him to take me to the flame
It might have been completely cheap to withstand
To say look, son, this isn’t the sort of factor you must do to your father
However I used to be drained and the kid was persistent and I puzzled
How lengthy will this factor go on?
It’s true, I’m previous now
I don’t truly wish to dwell that for much longer
However there are a couple of extra issues I’ve to do
Is it presumptuous to say there’s a future that will depend on me?
The Earth has its personal concepts
The ocean has different concepts
And the sky has concepts
There are only a few our bodies falling from the sky in the present day
I believe I acknowledge a few of them
They’re my youngsters and certainly one of them whispers to me
This isn’t the correct approach to dwell
And to dwell within the improper manner is to die within the improper manner
Who mentioned that and what did they imply?
Earlier than he takes me to the flame I inform my son
There’s nothing left to do right here on Earth
I welcome the ache and I welcome my son’s audacity
I love his fingers as they grip my shirtsleeve
In these fingers I really feel disappointment, tenacity, anger, hope
I really feel the violence of the centuries filling up in his blood
I understand how lonely it’s in his physique
The expectations of our persons are extraordinary


This poem seems within the February 2025 print version.

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