Deaf to mother's screaming
unheard from a waiting room
the thorny villain with flask
his baby being forced into
life is not heard until it's
born into blinding light a
world of mistakes forgotten
on death's lonely wedding bed.
In the old days fathers waited in rooms with bad coffee and fuzzy TV and ashtrays full of butts until the nurse summoned us to the nursery window where we saw a stranger looking like Winston Churchill. We ran to the nearest bar to celebrate the new arrival and hand out cigars and buy rounds for the house until the money ran out. We slept alone in our wedding bed for the first time but not the last.