Excerpt from “A Trail of Crumbs” poetry collection, due in late 2019.
A Ghazal is a Persian poetry form using couplets that share a rhyme and a refrain. Each line must share the same meter. The writer must also reference the author’s own name and express longing in the last couplet. Written as the boy became a teen. Baton Rouge, 2008.
For my brother.
My brother, not a small one anymore not a shy boy,
Little dude hangs loose while days grow into years on the sly, boy
There’s the mean one and the teasing one, with three big sisters
You say “Jo's the fun one” and we’ve had some good times, boy
Do you remember when you were a baby and we’d dance to
“Ob la di Ob la da” - dip low when they’d sing high, boy?
Fresh from high school now you got not much to say
That’s when we drive and play music to describe what’s inside, boy
Not to be seen as young, not to be seen as young, this strong scent
Of Ax masks childhood deeper by the night, boy
Your frame the same since you were a babe now gains mass and size
Big tough guy hugs hard to come by now, boy
Joanna Horton McPherson 