Fatherless - Sílvia Pérez Cruz

You will be aware of an absence, presently

Growing beside you, like a tree

A death tree, color gone, an Australian gum tree

Balding, gelded by lightning — an illusion

And a sky like a pig’s backside, an utter lack of attention

But right now you are dumb

And I love your stupidity

The blind mirror of it.

I look in

And find no face but my own, and you think that’s funny

It is good for me

To have you grab my nose, a ladder rung

One day you may touch what’s wrong

The small skulls, the smashed blue hills, the godawful hush

Till then your smiles are found money