The Bat

by | Feb 24, 2021 | Poetry

is a creature not to be believed
here in the kitchen, a sudden

dark umbra.
After our brooms

turn to their bristles
and we swipe the ceiling,

my father’s old skin breaks
when we softly collide.

Thomas,
do you see this blood?
I almost reach

to touch the slick break,
corona of bruise—

through his body
I enter the body waiting for me—

his arms
dark as the wings

that flail
and fall from the light.

 

THE BAT by Thomas Dooley

 


 

Photo used under CC. 

About The Author

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Thomas Dooley is the author of Trespass (Harper Perennial, 2014), selected by the National Poetry Series and hailed by Booklist as “a masterful debut.” He is the Founding Artistic Director of Poetry Well, an organization dedicated to celebrating and promoting poetry as a vital part of our individual and collective wellness.