JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

A waltz step away from freedom
hairline legs right angled on themselves
swaying undecidedly on the glass
only the smooth cold ice of it
invisibly pressing back at him

 

Daddy, says the child
gazing at the spindly infrastructure of him

Daddy, go out

 

The autumn wind puffs the net curtain
billowing dust motes and a single brown leaf
into the room
but Daddy sways back and forth
in his ungainly implausible dance routine
to an inaudible gig of summer
and a warmer dance under the trees
to the music of the flies and the bees

 

Go out, says the child, swatting petulantly at the pane
and Daddy drops to the sill, hesitation ended,
a twisted heap of girders

Ugh, says the child,
scoops him up on an untidy torn page
throws him out the window
into the wind
to freedom