How
by Patrick T. Reardon
Ash the milk.
Ash the caped-boy hero snapshot.
Ash Blacktop, signboards,
white t-shirt boy.
Ash left hand bunt.
Ash weight circles lift.
How keen?
Ash altar-boy uniform.
Ash linebacker uniform,
grade school uniform,
marriage-day uniform.
Ash the hair in the furnace,
the toes, the 2 elbows,
the metaled back,
the jaw, the stutter tongue,
the skull, the hole in the skull.
How dirge?
Mix ash with concrete,
build a short walk through grass
to nowhere,
take the sledge
and slam it down and
again and
again and
again and
again and
again and
again and
again and
again and
fissure cement to sacred handwriting.
Do this in memory.
Patrick T. Reardon, a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, is the author of eleven books, including the poetry collections Requiem for David (Silver Birch Press), Darkness on the Face of the Deep (Kelsay Books) and The Lost Tribes (Gray Book Press). Forthcoming is his memoir in prose poems Puddin’: The Autobiography of a Baby from Third World Press.
Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com.