Soonisms
Healed by a microscope, the angel burns my missing son's hair
in the mirror's
invisible stomach.
I am in the blue school of that first shooting.
Ohio radio treats fatigue as an error from sleep's past.
Art is a moon rock in a gun shop
And death
God's refusal
to age.
Copyright © 2021 by Barton Smock. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 23, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.
“I can't speak for all fathers, but my own fathering is littered with necessary and fake finalities. As such, I wrote this poem by hand on a small piece of paper while worrying about the long and short lives of my children. In the spacing of the poem, I tried to honor the little room I'd given myself for its projected concerns.”
—Barton Smock
Barton Smock
Barton Smock is the author of the chapbook Skin to Skin in an Unmarked Life (Trainwreck Press, 2021).