Father, Forever

Father, Forever

Riley Bounds

Sun burned bright in you the 30 years you gave me. Falling star down the road, 90 miles an hour in 30 zones. Flame trails caught the trees, spread. We are not so cosmic. We aren’t meant to hold the heat, keep everything in balance. Plasma become flare, you become hell. But hell isn’t a one-man tomb. Thirty years shed. Face in your cinder.

In the world you’ve consumed, I remember the ones you created. The ones in oil pastel and sketch paper. The ones told to me in my race car bed before sleep. The ones we made in the log rides at the state fair and the carousel afterwards. I remember the dogs we’ve buried, the houses we built, the walks down wood paths only we knew. These are the worlds you burned for. Those are the worlds you’ve become. Son to father, father to sun, sun in the Son.

I’ll miss you forever, Dad.

son

In memory of Gayle Bounds, February 27th, 1955 - September 7th, 2023

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Riley Bounds
Poet & Editor

Riley is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of Solum Literary Press

 Photography by Fabian Jones