April 16: As a Human Being

[Martha]

As a Human Being
Jericho Brown

There is the happiness you have
And the happiness you deserve.
They sit apart from one another
The way you and your mother
Sat on opposite ends of the sofa
After an ambulance came to take
Your father away. Some good
Doctor will stitch him up, and
Soon an aunt will arrive to drive
Your mother to the hospital
Where she will settle next to him
Forever, as promised. She holds
The arm of her seat as if she could
Fall, as if it is the only sturdy thing,
And it is since you've done what
You always wanted. You fought
Your father and won, marred him.
He'll have a scar he can see all
Because of you. And your mother,
The only woman you ever cried for,
Must tend to it as a bride tends
To her vows, forsaking all others
No matter how sore the injury.
No matter how sore the injury
Has left you, you sit understanding
Yourself as a human being finally
Free now that nobody's got to love you.

--

Also by Jericho Brown: 
+ Say Thank You Say I’m Sorry
+ Track 5: Summertime - as performed by Janis Joplin

+ Prayer of the Backhanded

Today in: 

2024: Love Comes Quietly, Robert Creeley
2023: After Touching You, I Think of Narcissus Drowning, Leila Chatti
2022: Will You?, Carrie Fountain
2021: After Graduate School, Valencia Robin
2020: in lieu of a poem, i’d like to say, Danez Smith
2019: from The Invention of Streetlights
2018: Returning, Tami Haaland
2017: An Ordinary Composure, James L. White
2016: Verge, Mark Doty
2015: Reasons to Survive November, Tony Hoagland
2014: Unhappy Hour, Richard Siken
2013: Just Once, Anne Sexton
2012: Talk, Noelle Kocot
2011: Why They Went, Elizabeth Bradfield
2010: Anxiety, Frank O’Hara
2009: The Continuous Life, Mark Strand
2008: An old story, Bob Hicok
2007: you can’t be a star in the sky without holy fire, Frank X. Gaspar
2006: For the Sisters of the Hotel Dieu, A.M. Klein
2005: Other Lives And Dimensions And Finally A Love Poem, Bob Hicok

+ Today's poem: As a Human Being, Jericho Brown