to you, my old man

You, there, alone in your dark escape
Pulled too many a string.
You, there, behind the thickness of your Vaseline eyes
In the deafness of your mind.

Waiting.

No
Going
Back.

“You didn’t hear? I’m so sorry.”
But I did.
My ear’d been on you,
I was onto you.
There.

To see you once more.
You, there, but not at all.

A white-washed wall, too clean
And you, there, just down the hall
Swaddled in a baptismal cloth
Keeping you from the chill, but not from cold
Reality.

I, here, cast a gaze at you.
My prideful one
My moxied marauder
My life’s lesson
Of how not to live.

Heart pounds and palms ache
To touch you
(sonofabitch).

You, there
Split my mind with your silence
And I, here, don’t seem to mind.