After ’13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’ by Wallace Stevens
I.

Among twenty men lined up

waiting for footy tickets

the only thing moving

was a father, bouncing with no child in sight.
II.

Is that heat rash

or sensitivity to tomatoes?
III.

The father ran

from room to room.

The bib was in the car.
IV.

A dad, their dad and their dad.

The tribe that sooths,

they can all be parents

for someone.
V.

Only a father

can laugh at being pissed on.
VI.

The past, present, future.

Time moves

like a fog-like mist

enveloping the land.

It is all centred

on this little human.
VII.

Do/Don’t/try/eat/sleep/cry

a father always/never wins.

Just do what you feel is right.
VIII.

Can you please keep an eye on her?

I am going to make sweet potato.
IX.

When the father left for work

the world opened up.

He left his hat at home.
X.

The chance to change

from lad to dad,

a transformation broaching

on the sublime.
XI.

Socks last seconds — kick kick kick —

Memories of socks a lifetime

revived at a daughter’s 18th
XII.

She looks like you

and nothing like me.

We both said.
XIII.

It was afternoon all day

and evening yesterday.

It was too hot to walk

and inside was hellishly boring.

A father sits on the couch

and sings that song again.