Matthew Sharos is a Poetry MFA candidate at Columbia College Chicago where he teaches first-year writing. His
work is forthcoming in Columbia Poetry Review and Eratio.
my father was a girl
spitting wire casings
onto the carpet
hanging a pair of speakers
in the ceiling
above her bed
all the power bated
in a light switch
that moment where watts
hum in the dark
guitar
my father was a boy
an electrician
loved his mother
under the sink
popeye mugs of wine
the milkman was the white
replacement
for wires
my father was
my father
was my father was
my father is my mother’s house
my father is my mother
my father is
my
he is not the accident
he is not old
he is tinkering and sad
he recites every song he ever wrote
he is sounding
low-quality
in a hollow box
of particle board
veneered