Your Daddy

for n.

Your daddy’s booming voice downstairs
now claimed by leukemia

the boat he built sold off
phantasmagoric stones down on the beach

gather their roundness about themselves
like a cloak

the train comes all the way
into Hull now

even the Atlantic Ocean thinks
hey, this might be a shortcut into Boston

bypassing the dirty bay
the slimy fish

the ships digging into my spine
it is for this very reason

I hate personifying the sea
it takes over my voice

which took so long to find
and, now, I have to share it?

let it fend for itself
let it take the long way in

that’s what your daddy
would say