I meet my father before he is my father In the fourth aisle of Safeway, Puyallup, In the aisle that holds processed foods and family sized portions That make you quite fat and quite happy There is no hummus or pita bread or beer laced with an imported           homesickness There […]

Your mother answers the phone.  She recognizes the number and picks up before the impossibility of a Lazarus rises. The room forgets to breathe. Your grandmother watches, with a half-eaten cookie in her hand. And you wait.  Everyone waits. Your mother says that she only answered because it was from his old room. Someone else […]