hole in my heart

photo by Sahadevision, 2014

First published in Newtown Literary, Issue 16 (Spring/Summer 2020).

I would have
stayed on the phone forever if
I had known
the next call across the ocean
would come carrying a message and punch
a hole in my heart
where things fall and disappear like
the Bermuda triangle
names in photographs / scribbled notecards /
moments
in history / parts of family tree / political debates /
trivia contests / stories / memories

Been five years, still
things disappear
into a hole in my heart
shaped like my father