By TJ Holland
Date: 29 November 2000
Places You Should Have Been
You took him out
stealing him the way one
steals cargo.
That child chilled in a warehouse
and gathered painful dust.
Tossed him into the truck
blew off the dust with
the speed wind of the road
just to take a good look.
Strange you'd choose the night
to illuminate your son.
You would attempt to drive
and make tracks between your now
and the ever-present now
of every tomorrow
of that boy's yesterdays.
A child's eternal hope,
"TOMORROW he will come!"
Damn you.
A mother will curse the cursed.
But boys are always looking
for the things that make them men
and men are always looking for their boys.
Years of tears refuse to deny
there were places you should have been
moments you could have seen.
River of tears do not cease to flow
damn them damn you!
Now that child has made his own tracks
blew off his dust
with his own reeling wheels
stretched out a wrinkled mind
exited the warehouse, not stolen
but sped out.
He couldn't hear the wheels that moved you then
and there are none that move you now.
Back to the Heart-on-Sleeve Corner