On a roll

When he tells me about the tumors, he crie

and hangs up the phone 

and I call back immediately 

and lie in his ear and with encouragement 

he lies in my ear.

We do this every day, a frantic duet 

of lies flying back and forth

like homing pigeons but 

growing bigger and faster.

It does not matter to us 

if they are plausible. 

We are on a roll.
We cannot stop, we welcome 

any lies, especially miracles, 

also lies about volition 

and automatic forces, 

lies that keep us blind 

and the terror down, lies

that take us out of this world,
lies that make us go limp

from head to heart, that

help us bend far away from

what is beaming down. 

Slump

Even in the early pictures, my brother 

sitting in the stroller, you can tell
our father isn't satisfied.

Already there's an inward drooping 

in the baby’s eyes 

that mirrors the slump in father’s face 

looking past the child toward something 

deep and awful that left its marks on him.  

There's nothing wrong about this baby 

boy but his father’s dis-esteem ages 

that child, runs his life.....

poor health hunts him down

like a lion in the weeds
and then devours him.

But my brother cleaves to my love, 

at times thin as an exclamation mark 

but not loving him is just too hard 

for me to swallow.