sometimes i wish i were back on that staircase

floating in my father’s weightless embrace

peeking out over his shoulder

as the world ebbed away with lullaby cadence

sleep, whispering its secrets in my ears

as my limbs unravel and begin their subtle sway

like fields of underwater wheat

caressed by deep, gentle currents

floating. out to sea, out past the horizon

past the fingertips of gravity

to where sea and sky press together, quietly and softly

and promise to hold each other forever

and suspended there, wrapped in cloud-cotton blankets

i reach out my little man’s hand, and

pat-pat-pat my father’s back

to tell him, ‘thank you. thank you.’