'In the Shoes of My Son' by Alan Kissane

A faceless man visited me

today with pencils and paper

and a picture of a broken heart

he wanted me to sign. He listened

like a starving pilgrim to my stories,

my adventures with the man I call Dad

(when I’m allowed to

by the woman I call Mum).

He said that in time all bad things

will float away into the belly of the night

to be swallowed by the stars, and that

their light will be a great torch to guide me.

It was only afterwards I realised

that the faceless man looked

a lot like the memories of my Dad.

All Rights. Alan Kissane.

Alan Kissane works as a teacher of English in the Midlands, UK. His poetry has appeared in print and online at Allegro, Culture Matters, Dissonance Magazine, Dreich, Dust Poetry, Emerge Literary Journal, Epoch, Fahmidan, iamb, Ink Sac, Kindling, and Neologism, amongst others. He is currently editing his first chapbook entitled ‘Gather Up The Silence.’