Page 111 of The Secret to Belonging

i need parents, too

your father

looks at his hands

looks at the floor

looks away

he’s our son

we can’t abandon our son

TWO (TO)

you set stacks of videos on the counter

slide the metal gate across the door

click off the open sign

Mr. Hewitt tunes the radio to the Dodger game

and takes the faceplate off a broken VCR

you feed tapes to the rewind machine

rewind your brain five thousand miles

wonder what Bjørn made for middag

who will finish weaving your pledd

if Espen is seeing anyone

tears land on a VHS copy of Breaking Away

breaking away

escaping

fleeing

running

you visualize boarding a plane

taxiing down the tarmac

flying up

up and away

when they come home from the hospital

you refuse

to share a room with your brother