GIVEN NAMES
I have two sons I gave them names
& crooked laughs & skittish brains
& marked them with my absence & my hopes
I sang them songs & called their wrongs
& tried to show them all the ropes
& failing that as all men do
I cooled their fevered brows
& rocked them through
the nightmares that all went away
& came back in the middle of the day
I talked them down off edges
& heard their shredded hearts
& taught them what I know of endings & of starts
& from this dimming vantage of my years
I know I spared them neither love nor tears
I am no wiser on the way
than they on any given day
& all the wars I led them through
have won us what: I couldn’t say
& looking back upon a fading land
that I have failed to understand
I stand as someday they must too
& wonder what it might be like
to meet them somewhere in the night
when we lay down our shields
& all our duties done
in the gathering of fathers & of sons
where we have no more titles only names
where we are made of what we choose
& what we take & what we lose
For all our differences & shame
we’ll meet as men who are the same
& there as they have never done
these aging men whom I call son
will call me by my given name