Issue > Poetry
Sara London

Sara London

Sara London is the author of The Tyranny of Milk and a forthcoming collection of poetry, Upkeep, both from Four Way Books. Her poems have appeared in The Hudson Review, Poetry East, The Iowa Review, the Poetry Daily anthology, The Common, Quarterly West and elsewhere. She currently teaches creative writing and literature at Smith College.

Foter's Tog


Whether you came because
I summoned you, as if to

an audition, or you drifted in
on your own wind's singular

script will never be clear,
but there you were, your old

handsome self, '70s hair  
back-swept, a little silvered,

and of course I hugged you,
though you couldn't lift your

arms much, buttoned into that
cindery, immigrant overcoat.

Your eyes were rimmed raw
from winter gusts, or the loop

of dreams—the skin so
thin there, where the soul peers

out, spilling its blue pools
before retreating again.  

It was all backwards;
Mom had left you, as if

by divorce, moved on,
and your face was lit, flushed

with defeat. The arena, though,
was grand, an empty,

modern theatre, all too
silly now—just us, unfunny

father and daughter at center
stage. Desire couldn't have

moved your feet.
In the wings, was it Gratitude

issuing no lines or cues
for me at all? Just this

dream of our greeting,
so brief, in the borderlight

before daybreak.
               
                       

                   —Yiddish for "Father's Day"

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