A Father's Work Is Never Done
By Nathan Hoks
Father was tired of gender so he entered a trance and conceived the Holy Ghost,
A neuter spirit that would ride alongside him as he drove his dark red Saturn up the mountain of the future.
And he drove up the mountain of the future and deforested most of it and built luxury condos on the southwest slopes
And he relocated the wolves, which were dear as children to him, in zoos so large the zookeepers were still mapping out the boundaries.
Then the Holy Ghost got lost in a pack of storm clouds, which was the plan from the beginning for even in the beginning
Father's plans were complex and ineffable.
Father's plans were beautiful as scrambled eggs.
Father's plans were difficult to digest, and the more we asked about them the more we felt butter churning in our stomachs.
And he devised this plan: in the future English will be a moustache that slowly leaks hot oil into the mouth.
And he devised this plan, we'll stand on our heads and let the ocean wash over us.
The ocean will be a tub of mint tea.
The ocean will make the sound of a tuba and be filled with manatees.
He devised another plan and took a nap.
His nap was a long summer day and in his dream he conceived new names for his children.
And he awoke with a start and let out a yelp when they began clipping his whiskers.
They clubbed each other with magic police wands and smeared blood on his Saturn's windshield.
It was a homecoming party and they needed to build a nest.
They needed to crawl back into that monster's mouth.
Copyright Credit: Nathan Hoks, "A Father’s Work Is Never Done" from Nests In Air. Copyright © 2021 by Nathan Hoks. Reprinted by permission of Black Ocean.
Source: Nests in Air (Black Ocean, 2021)