This writing...

This undressing in public
and worse - in front of friends

Exposing the barely conscious
Baring blistered bowels, the unexposable, the bruises

Will they laugh, kid, make fun?

Will they, like a social worker,
try to fix - deny that unacceptable part?

or

Will they, like a father,
stand with me in my vulnerable moment?
like a mother, caress the purple skin
kiss it and make it better?

This writing
This undressing

This sort of intimacy I've always feared

This anxiety of giving birth -
the child in its demands,
in its innocence and unsophisticated honesty
in its neediness -
the child who might reveal me, love me,
enlighten me, make me proud, make me a father.

03/10/2002

Posted on 03/10/2002
Copyright © 2024 Glenn Currier