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My Second Time
- My Second Time
85 pounds
A boy with a knife and a hot bath drawnAt midnight is impetuous. At high noon
Is deliberate. He knows the sycamoresShake their gold leaves at him, laughing.
He knows his mother will never wake up,Not really, not to smile and dance
As she did when his father was here.He knows his father is never coming back—
The crows told him so. They clatter loudThrough his arms when he tries to sleep,
A frenzy of claws and feathers and beaksHe can still only by cutting them free,
One at a time most days. But today, everyone,Gets to fly home. He knows this to be true.
Lucien Darjeun Meadows was born in Virginia. His poetry has appeared in West Branch, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Quarterly West, Beloit Poetry Journal, and the American Journal of Nursing. An awp Intro Journals Project winner, he has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and recognition from the Academy of American Poets. He lives in Fort Collins, CO.
