{ Kate Rhodes: Angle-poise. }

[delga]

Angle-poise
by Kate Rhodes

Misunderstanding the laws of nature
my father places himself

under a direct light,
hoping to dissolve by morning.

But the beams do nothing
except warm the roof of his mind,

bring his anxiety to a simmer,
brightness fizzing in his ears.

It reminds him of Sunday school angels
who wore their haloes

tipped at dangerous angles,
as if they wanted nothing more

than to fall back to earth,
render themselves human again.

On the wall ahead he sees
the outline of the lamp's crooked arm

and himself - a blurred thumbprint
on a circle of gold.