JD DeHart is a writer and teacher. His chapbook, The Truth About Snails, is available from RedDashboard.
Brother, I want to hear your voice
and I don't. I want to see what
we have in common, finally, after all
these years.
I want to meet the son that has
my name.
There is another version of my story
I'd like to hear out of your mouth,
and then maybe we can have some
family rest.
Bunker
They dug the bunker
in the back yard in the heyday
of bomb threats. Imagine,
he said, if I came in one day
with a supermodel. Imagine,
you walking in on us and finding
me with a supermodel. Imagine.
It's one of those statements
I would have made at ten,
but he's forty, so I just smile
and wonder how long it took
to dig this space.
Hardly Known
I hope, I suppose
it is common experience
to pass this sidewalk
by the flaming torch figure
and know that the faces
passing me barely regard
my walk.
I hope, I suppose
it is profoundly human
to know that there are more
names that I will never
know than that I can learn,
remember, and forget.
That this cycle of person
and friendship is an endless
carousel of proclivities,
all bound up in one to five
common personality traits.
~JD DeHart