'Leaving Papa' and 'Crutches', by Darrell Lindsey
" Leaving Papa" was first published in Kaleidotrope, and was nominated
for a 2014 Rhysling Award.
Leaving Papa
Something in the gaze of ten thousand blackbirds
lays the mighty forest bare,
& the woodsman cannot even remember
the names of his children
who are running towards the nearest road
with thorns in their hands.
They shout in a broken tongue,
sense that time is either unwinding
or trying to reinvent itself.
They hear their late mother's voice
amid the heat shimmer,
& the woman who never drove
breaks the speed limit
right through the horizon.
Crutches
The sunshine here
is on crutches,
and the wind speaks ill
of all but the birds
that sing through it
with wings on fire.
My eyes are anthills
on this riotous day,
and know that you will not be waiting
in the meadow
should I decide to stay
until the stars explode
and time forgets
what we have done to one another.
Darrell Lindsey is a Pushcart Prize and Rhysling Award-nominated poet from Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas.
He is the author of three poetry collections, the most recent being Spectrum ( Cyberwit.net, 2020). His work has appeared in more than 85 journals, magazines, and anthologies.