Inheritance

Inheritance

I just stood in the spitting rain
Grinding autumn leaves
With my creased leather boot
While they buried my father
Beside a damp wood.
Funerals make you think.

Earlier, they tried to give me his chair,
A scratched watch, some letters,
Old photographs, a blue robe,
Dog-eared books, a record player...
Remnants of his unvarnished life.
I told them, “Give it away.”

Besides, I carry his mark:
I leave parties suddenly.
I’m good at making bread.
I smile like a wolf.
I constantly need to be alone.
Children trust me.

We're bound together, he and I.
But when they lowered the box into the ground
Something broke loose.
I looked up, through watery shrouds of breath,
And saw something shooting away
Like a distant star,
Very alone and terribly free.