TWO POEMS by MICHAEL BROOKBANK
single dad entanglement
physicists discovered the universe
isn’t locally real like how i only exist
every other weekend. if divorce were
easy, everyone would do it. but no one
asks you enough of the right questions
like “sure but are you okay?” me?
if i’m going to be perceived then
of course... i’m fine. i’ve been shot
with 192 lasers. gained a megajoule
without any risk of fallout. i’m calling it
a breakthrough: some father/son bonding.
my therapist says i’m insightful. i’m trying
to be honest. i started running to clear
my head. there’s too much uncertainty
without him home. i become a racing blur.
simultaneously alive and dead, like the cat
who sleeps in his room next to his bed or
his slowly deflating birthday balloon barely
floating above the dinner table. did you know
we’re running out of helium? another reminder
the world i’m sharing with him won’t stop
spinning. entanglement is my only escape.
at 3 years old, he can’t say “yesterday” so
he tells me what he did with his mom during
the “last days.” how much does he know?
what unlearning will come from me?
when i enter his room, he stops what he’s doing.
even photons change their behavior as you
observe them. oh, how cliche! i’ve compared
my child to light. but how sweet to not miss
the darkness of misbehavior elsewhere.
a reality not at home with me.
Please
I want to see you
disappear but not in rapture.
One earring left behind
could undo the moving on
I’ve done. The smallest
hint of your perfume; the smell
before forty days of rain.
I want to text you but I don’t
know if you should think of me or
know I was thinking of you.
All the possibilities. Many worlds.
They’re all flooded with the way
you used to say my name.
In this reality, I can’t forget
the weight of your body, smiling
with your hair in my face.
If you had vanished then
it would have been mercy.
Michael Brookbank (he/him) is a writer from Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati, OH. His work has been published in Sugared Water and Bullshit Lit, among others. He likes to run along the river and go on hikes with his son when not writing. You can find him on Instagram @michaelbrookbank and X @michaeljohnpoet.