Doing the Bills

My father impaling bills

on a nail on a block of wood

then putting his head in his hands

and you with your head in your hands

and my head in my hands

hands over my eyes

and I see again what I forgot for decades

my father

after doing the bills

crumbling bread in a bowl

and pouring milk over the bread

and spooning in sugar.

Copyright Credit: Poem copyright ©2021 by Lee Upton, “Doing the Bills” from The Southern Review, Vol. 37:3, Summer 2021. Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher.