Handsome is

In the dream, my father hides inside

another man’s body.

                                 I know him

by his hands. But how am I child?

And this wall against my back, how long

has it been a wall? My father follows

me. Handsome as a close friend,

a tree in bloom.

I build a room to hold him.

He picks all the locks. I scream.

                                 Don’t scream.

I run. Stand still. I am a forest,

a field. I crumble and shift. I wake,

my breath deep inside the earth.