Against Tradition
each day I know if I do not kiss
the dirt after walking on it I become
my father am I I am my father
I am my father’s son he sits in a chair
by the lake in front of his house
watching the water gather the dark
and I know there is no sadness
like his sadness he lets it turn to anger
a rock he ties to his neck his mouth
full of dirt a gift from his own father
who taught him his temper like
a wildfire father I do not turn into
your driveway tonight I watch
my headlights cut the dark like water
William Fargason is the author of Love Song to the Demon-Possessed Pigs of Gadara (University of Iowa Press, 2020). His poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, The Cincinnati Review, Narrative, and elsewhere. His nonfiction has appeared in Brevity, The Offing, and elsewhere. He has an MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in poetry from Florida State University. He lives with himself in Towson, Maryland.
Header photo by Andrei Baskevich, courtesy Shutterstock. Photo of William Fargason by Colby Blackwill.
