Dad

• Hunched over in your garden
• like a daylily on the boardwalk watching
• the world spin faster
• and faster on its slant axis,
• you still water the plants we bought for you
• three summers ago, as if
• you were still showering us
• with your wordless love,
• with your thankless devotion,
• praying one day that
• we will eventually grow
• back in your direction.