into a house without fathers
by John Sweet
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shaking off the cold
after twelve days
the poet opens his shirt
birds explode
from his exposed skin
and circle the sun
flowers grow from
the blood coughed into
the bathroom sink
the words though
the words remain hidden
and so he digs
through his own
sagging flesh to the
floor
through the floor to the
basement
and his wife comes home
from work
to find him deep in a hole
dug with bare hands
a hole filled
with desperate silence
and she kneels down to
kiss his shoulder blades
and ragged black wings
begin to grow where
her lips have touched
she understands too late
that her child will be
born into a house
without fathers
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