Labor Day 1998

Father had been dead a week
when a storm
hit that was so violent

for a day or two
I was distracted
and relieved
not to have to think
about him.

Agreed to disagree.
Many things unsaid.

Alone in his house, dark
and silent
I passed the time
with his empty shoes

Patrick Meeds lives in Syracuse, NY and studies writing at the Syracuse YMCA’s Downtown Writer’s Center. He has been previously published in Stone Canoe literary journal, the New Ohio Review, Tupelo Quarterly, the Atticus Review, Whiskey Island, Guernica, The Main Street Rag, and Nine Mile Review among others.