Maybe he never existed. Maybe this is all he is. Cobbled prop in a worker’s cap
and prisoner’s shirt. Face without features. Puppet arm lifting a cup to an absent
mouth. Two crossed triangles on a chest where a heart might flutter. Before, and
after. Silence speaks where a tongue may not. Strangle it out. What happened. Boy
and his father. Boy rolled in a blanket, pressed to a wall. On the far side, the other
children are screaming. Boy slung over his father’s shoulder. Boy as a smuggled
sack of potatoes. One child and one child and one child and one. Giving his ears away.
Lee Sharkey is the author of Walking Backwards (Tupelo, 2016), Calendars of Fire, and nine earlier full-length poetry collections and chapbooks. Her poetry has appeared in Consequence, Crazyhorse, FIELD, Kenyon Review, Massachusetts Review, Nimrod, Solstice, and other journals. Her recognitions include the Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize, the Abraham Sutzkever Centennial Prize, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance’s Distinguished Achievement Award.
