After they put my father's body in the van
the mortuary sent to collect him,
my sister hugged me and we cried.
It was a strong, tight hug;
a desperate embrace,
trying to keep everyone grounded to this world
making sure the other is unable to leave
because there's been far too much
leaving going on already and it has to stop.
Bio: John Homan is a poet and percussionist from Bend, Oregon. He is a graduate of Indiana University. His work has appeared in Chiron Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Misfit Magazine among others. He is an ESL tutor in a middle school, happy to have given up 20 years of corporate customer service. He lives in Elkhart, Indiana with his wife and cats...lots of cats.