Oh my father who is dying — legs and belly
swollen, hands trembling—somewhere inside
your ravaged body is the boy who drove
a Plymouth to his best girl’s house
and after that, The Penguin. You told me once
The Penguin had the best burgers
in town, and milkshakes so thick you could eat
them with a spoon. Remember how you draped
your arm like a loose sweater across
my mother’s bare shoulders? I knew then,
he said, she was the one for me. Now she waits
by your chair with pills to ease the pain
that dogs you like a playground bully. Please,
I pray, let death be kind. Let it come to him
like a front-porch-kiss beneath an arc
of light that follows him all the way home.
THE PENGUIN by Terri Kirby Erickson | Sandalwood Vanilla Poetry Reed Diffuser
Terri Kirby Erickson is the author of seven full-length collections of poetry, including A Sun Inside My Chest (Press 53, 2020), winner of the International Book Award for Poetry and her latest book, Night Talks: New & Selected Poems (Press 53, 2023), which was a Finalist for the Best Book Award for Poetry and for the International Book Award for Poetry. Additional awards include the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, Annals of Internal Medicine Poetry Prize, Tennessee Williams Poetry Prize, and a Nautilus Silver Book Award, among many others. Her work has appeared in “American Life in Poetry,” ONE ART, Rattle, The SUN, Verse Daily, and numerous other literary journals, anthologies, magazines, and newspapers. She lives in North Carolina, USA.
