Sleepwalkers
By Gregory Lawless
I thought if I painted a tunnel
on the side of a mountain, a harp
in the arms of my daughter. I thought
if I crumpled up a picture of Auden
it would make him look better
but not wiser. This is my statue
called Sleepwalkers. This is a photo
of my favorite stairway in Chicago.
These are the boats that carried my father
out to sea, and by sea I mean,
where is he? When my father showed me
how to slide a boat into a bottle, I hid under the bed
and cursed the water. By the time you read this
I will be fluent in another tongue. For example:
amigo, el nombre
de mi barco es amigo. Now
my daughter counts the stairs
on her way down
without breaking her stride.
Outside, a plane flies into a cloud
but never flies out
the other side.