Ghazal for Your Father
A Dictionary of Names for Your Father:
(i.e. That hole in the wall reminds me of your father.)
UFO, Lockness Monster, Chupicabra, and Father.
Believe me. You will make contact with your Father.
Your mother rescues lost boys, gutter cats, and street dogs.
If they don’t return, we name them: Your Father.
A fear of coming home, as in your crush, gun, and car.
Symptomatic of something called your father?
You are the second best thing to leave Kansas.
Third was alcohol and the first was your father.
Car B is headed for state line. Car A for the police.
Who will get to the hospital first? Not your father.
A Venn diagram of you and your father is circle, not oval.
He’s only your shadow, nothing more. Not your father.
He wore women’s clothes. He found them beautiful.
The mistakes that come from a cover: Adric. Not your father.
Adric Tenuta is a Freshman at Emory University majoring in creative writing and comparative literature.
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