#eastcoastkin #artyear
@oliverbarkley.bsky.social

a brave tree

#eastcoastkin #artyear

even in the dark....flowers.

for oliver

#eastcoastkin #artyear

somewhere between sorrow and light

posting some of my old favorites..

#eastcoastkin #artyear #scape

I was a child

Wind-battered
across the floor

Your rage
like the thunder and sea
unpredictable

In the closet
my back rounded
like an old worthless coin

and love became a fable

The chemotherapy has made my father patient and gentle

Two men I always wanted him to be

And now I watch
my son enjoy this reformed man
as they toss the ball back and forth
In the shadow of dusk

and I see all the love that could have been
even as each throw becomes harder
for my father
to catch

I dream in the old language
The one my father would sing in
when he didn’t want us to know
he had been crying
from a world that liked to break him like cheap porcelain
Swept up in sunshine
mended at night
only to be broken again
the next day

The cancer
has spread everywhere
except my heart

So sit with me,
my child

until my eyes float
as two moons
in a loving sky

and my chest
sinks
like rain
in the garden
of all the hopes
I sowed