Dan Chiasson’s The Math Campers, to come this fall, is a book in part about fatherhood and adolescence—his own, his kids’, and the new freedoms as well as existential threats that shape their world. Today’s poem, from a multipart piece entitled “Over & Over,” is dedicated to his sons.
from “Over & Over”
my awareness seems to extend this day past the trap my body set for me past its small, pitiful adjustments of head here wings here antennae here
what does it matter, the head and wings and antennae if my awareness soars over the tops of the pines with their spiny flowers still green
like a drone flown by a teenage pilot over the rooftops, silent yawp past near meadows over the stop and shop its dragonfly landing gear ready
now it zooms in on the roots which grip the soil and feed on its decay your hand and mine at the same angle you there, in the future, fleeing me
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Learn more about Dan Chiasson’s forthcoming collection, The Math Campers