Only Child

Your mother’s milk
Your father’s anger
The razor wire surrounding him
And far below
Their droning engines
You lay in bed
Blowing out stars
The masters of
Your lonely kingdom
Pulled you along
With red-rimmed eyes
Through endless hours
Of drill and harness
Until you fell, surrendering
But still they never laid the gun down, only child
They sit like lions in a sunbeam, only child
And never came down
Remember all
The roads descending
To who you were, for blurred-out miles?
You smolder now
Coals and embers
Under the frost of indolence
I see you never lay the gun down, only child
You live your life behind a window, only child
And as you barrel down a bloodline, only child
Rise in the air over the mountains
Run like the days that cut them down
I see you now
As you relive them
Break like a wave, dissembling
But when you’re lying down among them, only child
There is no sound to fill the silence, only child. Forgive them
When you lay the gun down, only child, it’s not surrendering--
Only you know how