I discover my shoulder is not too broad 

to shudder life's tumor 

& my eyes become pages of sad songs 

with broken lyrics

as I pick up his boots & carve his map on my palm. 

I am too naive for this road of strangling struggles 

when I change my name to his & wear his shadow coat. 

I am now like a boy who doesn't know the path homeward;

hounding astray in disastrous dismay. 

--I become a lord of household weeping to a ragged moon. 

It's sad what my father's shadow breeds 

--a heavy night that darkens my light 

& darkens my desires

night that tackles with a thunderous dirge. 

my father's skin keeps drowning me 

like a storm of a deep sea

& I keep falling into it's labyrinth depths. 

 

I now know why some boys went and never returned

why some fathers left from their homes 

& found another place to call their own 

I now know why... 

when I wear my father's skin.