Book: Imagining the Future - Ruminations on Fathers and Other Masculine Apparitions by Magdalena Ball & Carolyn Howard-Johnson

categories: Book, Men's Poetry, Father's Day Poetry, Celebration Series, Magdalena Ball, Military Poetry, Patriotic Poetry, Nostalgic Poetry, Poetry

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson

about this book: Part of The Celebration Series by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball, this little $6.95 book was written with the literate man in mind, a lovely tuck-in gift that goes beyond the typical greeting card. It is available as an e-book to be used as an e-greeting card or slender chapbook in paper to be tucked into an envelope. Who says men don't like women to notice their intellectual side?

"[Both poets] have an incredible gift with literary imagery."
~ Darcia Helle

From Deciphering Earliest Remembered Sound
1942

All the sound in the world sucked
to a wavering, wailing note
I perch on my father's knee,
afraid, look thought our window.
Utah's lights snuff quickly, quickly,
silver sequins turn dark
until the skyline disappears
against deep velvet. There,
among our overstuffed chairs
doilies protect fat rolled arms.
The siren whine turns to silence.

What could that have been?

Oh, nothing. An air raid,
my mother answers
as if her words were lyrics
she wanted to forget.
Would the lights return
charged with sound that split
my father's hand from mine.
Father wears a khaki cap, grosgrain robbons
across his heart; smells of gabardine
and good-byes. His eyelids twitch.
Mother, once again, says

Oh probably nothing at all.