Father as Papercut

Poetry
Written By John Sibley Williams

or wet leaves weighing down a barn
roof. As jagged sunrise softened by
a few itinerant clouds; the whole of
winter winnowed down to one hard
lake face. Tanned rawhide stretched
along a living room floor; forgetting
for a moment the no-longer-animal
of it. As all that peaceful space
between open palm & its clenching.
How I want to remember you: bent
metal that could be used to mark my
inner thigh or the pages of a favorite
book. As the profound resonance of
a church bell, rusting soundless.

 
John Sibley Williams

John Sibley Williams is the editor of two Northwest poetry anthologies and the author of nine collections, including Disinheritance and Controlled Hallucinations. A seven-time Pushcart nominee, John is the winner of numerous awards, including the Philip Booth Award, American Literary Review Poetry Contest, Nancy D. Hargrove Editors' Prize, Confrontation Poetry Prize, and Vallum Award for Poetry. He serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and works as a literary agent. Previous publishing credits include: The Yale Review, Midwest Quarterly, Sycamore Review, Prairie Schooner, The Massachusetts Review, Poet Lore, Saranac Review, Atlanta Review, TriQuarterly, Columbia Poetry Review, Mid-American Review, Poetry Northwest, Third Coast, and various anthologies. He lives in Portland, Oregon. 

Previous

Poem with a Car Wreck
Next

Detroit Animalia