Family Portrait II

I look up and around

at all the other guys

with their people

Their motherstheir sisters

their brotherstheir uncles

and maybe, maybe their fathers

with their smiles, frowns, worries

fears, joys, pains, heartbreaks

written all over their faces like poetry

Their bodies—

how they lean across the tables

holding hands

how they cross their arms

protecting everything

how they pull out stuff

from bags like it’s Christmas—

If only they could be still for long enough

I would paint this whole scene

for the world to see

And Kadon, my hype man

is with an older and taller version of him

Same eyes, same small nerdy frame

and I wonderI wonder

how he ended up in here

with a pops like that

So I ask Umi

Where’s Uncle Rashon?

And she says

It’s gonna take him a little while

ThisThis really hurt him

He wants to see you, Amal

He really does