On Thursdays we have art class. Kids
make paintings for their dads and a lady comes
to explain what a stranger is.
When I asked for a dream of my father
I had night-sweats three times in a row.
I tell the children if you love your paintings
they'll love you back but it's a kind of sickness
when you can't dream of your father.
Some nights we have T.V. Body counts are
back. The reporter says they've asked for
a ceasefire to bury their dead. I sit in the dark
repeating the names of exotic grasses:
love in a mist and love lies bleeding.
-- Deborah Bogen
Deborah Bogen lives in Highland Park, where she runs a writing workshop in her living room. Her newest book, Landscape With Silos, was published by Texas Review Press. Many writers featured in Chapter & Verse are guests of Prosody, produced by Jan Beatty and Ellen Wadey. Prosody airs every Tuesday at 7 p.m. on independent radio, WYEP 91.3 FM.
