Starlight | Text of the Poem

My father stands in the warm evening
on the porch of my first house.
I am four years old and growing tired.
I see his head among the stars,
the glow of his cigarette, redder
than the summer moon riding
low over the old neighborhood. We
are alone, and he asks me if I am happy. 
"Are you happy?" I cannot answer 
I do not really understand the word, 
and the voice, my father's voice, is not 
his voice, but somehow thick and choked, 
a voice I have not heard before, but 
heard often since. He bends and passes 
a thumb beneath each of my eyes. 
The cigarette is gone, but I can small 
the...

[The entire page is 227 words long]

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