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Father and/or Abraham
It's like talking about the Lincoln Memorial: tremendous, yes, bigger
than anything I can remember, those tons of marble cold
when a cold wind gets in
there but warm in Spring
--are springs warm in Virginia, my last address for you?
It's like asking that enormous
white silence to explain me rainbows
to question my desert memories for clues
to your face: you, at my age, were already elsewhere, far away
from your child as your government could get you, and it's like
screaming
into the giant effigy's ear to mention. It's like
searching in solid eyes
for similarities I so easily find
in photographs you left
in your wake like postcards from your winter vacation.
It's like measuring a statue
to find a space
to fit you.