The American Poetry Review

THREE POEMS

Lineage

When my father calls my grandfather, he becomes a son.
He calls me to become, again, a father. My son

would have made me a father and my father
a grandfather. The expectation: this would continue,

one long trail of names passed like a candle.
I carry the weight of my father’s name.

Some sons say that.
My father carries my grandfather to the car,

his body no heavier than a bundle of

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