Leveled<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The pocket of chaos in my father\u2019s head, <\/p>\n “Leveled” first appeared in Summerset Review.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jed Myers <\/a>lives in Seattle. His poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Nimrod International Journal<\/em>, Golden Handcuffs Review,<\/em> qarrtsiluni<\/em>,<\/a> Atlanta Review,<\/em> Drash<\/em>, <\/a>Quiddity, The Monarch Review,<\/a> Palooka, Fugue, <\/em>the Journal of the American Medical Association<\/em>, the Rose Alley Press anthology Many Trails to the Summit<\/em>, <\/a>and elsewhere. He hosts the long-running open-mic cabaret NorthEndForum,<\/a> and is a member of the ensemble Band of Poets.<\/a> He is a psychiatrist with a therapy practice, and teaches at the University of Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leveled The pocket of chaos in my father\u2019s head, so far, has left him unable to walk, find words, lift food on a fork, or know what day it is. It makes him emotional\u2014he weeps as I enter the … Continue reading
\nso far, has left him unable
\nto walk, find words, lift food on a fork,
\nor know what day it is. It makes him
\nemotional\u2014he weeps as I enter
\nthe room in which he reclines for hours
\na day on his hospital bed. He speaks
\nwith a new stutter, says Help me<\/em>
\nwhenever he comes to a hole in the ground
\nof his memory. Yes, it was<\/em>
\n Connie Mack Stadium, Dad<\/em>\u2014I knew
\nwhat he was getting at. I see it too,
\nas it was, out past Strawberry Mansion
\nin the summer evening light. It was leveled
\ndecades ago, when he never wept.<\/p>\n