Lullaby
Nights I couldn’t sleep
my mother sang to me
about a boy who wanted
to be flown into heaven.
Everyday, climbing up
the tower he lived in
to see the blue doves
flying by, and everyday,
climbing down, weeping
into a featherless sky.
Sometimes I think of
what it was like for him,
wingless, after the song:
his second life repeating
in the otherworld where
music waits to be sung.
Copyright Credit: Francisco Márquez, "Lullaby" from The Carolina Quarterly, Fall 2021, Vol 71, Num 1. Copyright © 2021 by Francisco Márquez. Reprinted by permission of Francisco Márquez.
Source: The Carolina Quarterly, Fall 2021, Vol 71, Num 1 (The Carolina Quarterly, 2021)