I waited my whole life to know you
Raised by the waves and rocks
The wolves and lions
Held by the hidden wind
Shaped by the prisonous mountains

Knowing only
Her that I grew from
Her that loved me
More than herself
And yet
I held every breath
For you

You who
Never knew me
Who could
Not have known me
The curse
  Or Blessing
Of being a man
The unknown gift
  Or misfortune
Of being a father

Maybe that is
The necessity
Of it all
The cruel juxtaposition
Of life, and
Maybe that is

What it means
To be a man
What it means
To be a soldier
What it means
To sail from home
What it means
To be disposable

Great men like fragile dominos
Standing in those harvest lines
Falling in ripe swaths to the
Reaper's scythe—Never knowing
The field of flowers
They have left behind

This anemone grew
Under the shade of Motherhood
Seeking the sun of his Father
And when I found you
You mistook me for an enemy
And cut yourself down
On my sharp blade of truth

So I continue now
Not in your name
But in the name
Given by my mother
To break the cycle
Of disjointed sons

I remember standing out there
On those billowing banks
Watching the undulating face of
Poseidon spill smiles while
Keeping at bay the longing of my heart

Watching the ships sail
Filled with dreams and desires
I shall never hold
Slipping off into that longing
Line of earth and sky

To that day when you arrived
All of a sudden
And I recognized you still
Yet you knew me not

Destined to displease you
For your cutting wit
Drew down the rope
To hang my callow integrity

But it could not die
So instead you conjured
From your vicious aptitude
To send me off to Hades
Even as I stood in the
Light of Helios' glow

I was never your son
I just shared your blood
And even that viscid liquid
I have now rejected

The only curse
She could not break:
Wherever your name goes
Mine isn't far

The truest gift
She had to offer:
Wherever my life goes
Yours now is barred

I descend into that pool
Unburdened by the shadow
Of the silver sister
Bathing in her light
Cast in the image
Of that elegant form
Made from fragile
Strips of bark
I once wrote all my
Dreams on, which now
Have taken flight
To birth their own

A word uttered
In seeming abstraction
An action committed
Through thoughts distraction
Becomes the flower sown
Down in that byway
An unassuming gift
That blooms the heart
Of one that broke
Through to that
Hallowed meadow
Furthering a path
Where only walls
Had once grown

Emerging from the forest of grey
My eyes seek shade to shelter
Radiant reflections cast from the
Sea of yellow

A monochromatic refugee
Once lost in recursive malaise
Now freed by the
Banks of blue

I once traveled
Along disparate winds
Now find my feet
Entrenched in a massaging mold
Mouth flowering open
To a smile
And become once again:
A child