Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry: Resurrection

Edited and introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate

Michael Macklin is poetry editor for the Cafe Review and divides his time between Portland and Islesboro. In this week?s poem he remembers how a tragic accident during his childhood led to the expression of his father?s love.

Resurrection by Michael Macklin

The night Bobby Inch died
my father came home wild-eyed and crying.
A cattle truck charging through the dusk
caught the paper boy high on its horns,
threw him breathless to one side.

We wore the same shirt that day.
In flashing reds and blues, 
my father saw the shirt, still
against the blacktop.
Felt me slipping from him.

Seeing Bobby?s face,
some other father?s son,
he raced home to rage and rant
and hold me, looking deep
into my wide open eyes.

---

Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2004 by Michael Macklin. Reprinted from A Moxie and A Moon Pie: The Best of Moon Pie Press, Moon Pie Press, 2005, by permission of Michael Macklin. Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to David Turner, Special Assistant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at poetlaureate@mainewriters.org or 207-228-8263.