In My Father\u2019s Absence<\/p>\n
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Men make women messy, <\/p>\n \u201cIn my Father\u2019s Absence\u201d originally appeared in Nimrod International Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paul Fisher<\/a> was born and raised in Seattle, and currently lives in Bellingham. He earned an MA in Art and Education at Washington University in St. Louis, an MFA from the Poetry Program at New England College in New Hampshire, and is the recipient of an Individual Artist\u2019s Fellowship in Poetry from the Oregon Arts Commission. His first full-length book of poems, Rumors of Shore<\/em>,<\/a> won the 2009 Blue Light Book Award, and was published by in 2010. Recent poems have appeared in journals such as Cave Wall<\/em>, Crab Creek Review<\/em>, Naugatuck River Review<\/em>, and Nimrod International Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In My Father\u2019s Absence Men make women messy, my mother loved to vent while supervising pickups of plastic soldiers from my room. But I was six, too young to count the dead, too full of spunk to quake before … Continue reading
\nmy mother loved to vent
\nwhile supervising pickups
\nof plastic soldiers from my room.
\nBut I was six, too young
\nto count the dead,
\ntoo full of spunk to quake
\nbefore the high-pitched chorus
\nechoing each a cappella<\/em> rant.
\nPerhaps the better half of God
\nonce raised her voice
\nwhile ordering untidy worlds,
\nrewinding wind and whirlpools,
\nboxing ears and grounding boats.
\nI see her on the seventh evening
\nwatching leaves and snow
\ndescend in whorls like cereal and sugar
\nher ragamuffin children stir and spill
\namong the twigs and burls,
\nthe wooden blocks and battle gear
\nshe reads like bones,
\nthen sweeps from forest floors.<\/p>\n