23:59hrs

disinter

ever heard the story
of a boy
who kept his nose
to grindstone
to keep his aged father
alive.

night and day, he would pray
he would say ‘not today, old father,
not today.’

and the day came
when he awoke
without his old father.
the day before,
he had sat beside his old father.

today, he’d sit to be
his own.

he’d need the freckles of time,
the teeth that age painted,
the nerves that can no longer be nerves,
the sweat from a thousand suffering,
and the taste of old dust.

today won’t do.

and he believes
in resurrection
of
things he’d lost
to a dead year.

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