*

Somerville poet Steve Jordan writes: “I grew up in the Chicagoland area, and received my degree in English education from the University of Illinois, my masters in creative writing from Northwestern University and my second Masters at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I studied poetry at Harvard University with Joanna Klink. I currently teach high school English in Cambridge, Ma. and was the recipient of a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching.”

Poet Steve Jordan

Alexander

Anesthetic leaking away,

my heavy eyelids

blinking apart

the dark and the pain,

and my father sits next to me

for years

and doesn’t leave.  His mother

pulled bread

from her coat as they

huddled underground,

wondering which buildings

would be left in the morning.

They leaned over

an endless ocean,

their stomachs always

tugging for more.  I used to

carelessly eat through

a pear’s sweet flesh,

leaving misshapen cores

on my plate.

But my father

always ate straight into

the unyielding center

where it turns sour and sinewy,

seeds crushed into mash,

and he left only

the stem.  Now as we float

in the Galapagos

he tires and drifts,

and the undertow begins to

pull him away.

I reach for his arm,

startle him awake,

and swim him back to the boat.

— Steve Jordan

________________________________________
To have your work considered for the LYRICAL send it to:
dougholder@post.harvard.edu