Sonic Boom

In consequence, for miles around the night

exploded with the violence of her escape.

Yet she has not escaped. Behind her

and her ghostly silence, wherever she goes,

she drags like a harrow her unsettling past.

THE FATHER

When I am walking with the children, and a girl

still hard in the buttocks bends to them with a laugh,

my heart bangs where it hangs in my empty carcase.

But you knew that. It has already passed

the stage of neighbors' gossip and attained

the clarity of an historical fact.

A myth comes down your street: here on my right

toddles my twinkling daughter, who loves me, while

on my left marches my son, who does not.

It is all true, but it does not matter;

in twenty years my son and I will have reached

a silent understanding, whereas (poor fool,

already growing hollow) some pimply bastard

will have made off with my blessings and my daughter.