Double shift
by Sean Lause

  1. Even when he worked a double shift
  2. at the plant, my father gave me night rides,
  3. his shoulders strong, weighted with time.
    1. He carried me up to another world,
    2. of breezes and branches. Weightless,
    3. I became all reaching hands and air.
      1. The sky crayoned purple, the moon
      2. a pleasant zero sum, content
      3. for now, with imagined silver.
        1. A space between the trees opened
        2. with a gentle stirring, revealing
        3. stars and planets, patient, waiting.
          1. So briefly, the interlocking gears
          2. of the sky---paused---their labors,
          3. time’s punch clock frozen for now.
            1. My legs clenched round his neck,
            2. leaves lowering like medals
            3. I would pin on him if I could.
Packingtown Review – Vol.8, Winter 2016/2017

Sean Lause teaches courses in Shakespeare, Literature and the Hero and Medical Ethics at Rhodes State College in Lima, Ohio. His poems have appeared in The Minnesota Review, The Alaska Quarterly,The Beloit Poetry Journal,Another Chicago Magazine,Upstart Crown, The Pedestal, Jewish Currents, Sanskrit,Atlanta Review andPoetry International Poetry International. His first book of poems,Bestiary of Souls, was published in 2013 by FutureCycle Press.

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