There was a husband-father at one time, distinguished in phrases but not in gestures. 
There was a daughter circulating in vain attempts, calculating the usage of efforts, 
I’m afraid to say. I had painted her in pearly fabric 
amidst the lost husband-father who blew up our foundation 
when he sought to line draw the exaggerations in our field: what were perished 
actions of the family. I thought to resuscitate it all and my cheeks blew inward. 
I was holding all my breath inside. This wasn’t a good idea. 
So does this world spring from the imperishable, says The Upanishads.
And led me to ask for a crystalline idiom, because in finding 
the daughter, I lost myself. I realized (too late) 
I was granted tyranny for all the lost occasions. 
My therapist calls this manipulation. I decided to stake its claim. 
I will be done now. I knew I was the hat trick for them. 
And thus I’m over with the game because the game had since 
been done with me—I had no idea until I blew and blew and blew.
Copyright © 2020 by Prageeta Sharma. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 28, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.