Matthew Borczon

Billy

In

the

years

since

you

took

your

own

life

on

angry

nights

I

still

stare

down

stars

and

wonder

if

angels

feet

run

fast

or

fly

in

the

opposite

direction

of

gunfire

and

heartbreak

of

divorce

and

all

the

suicide

children

who

thought

it

was

over

before

it

even

started.

Matthew Borczon is a writer from Erie Pa. He has published 11 books of poetry, the most recent Ghost Highway Blues is available through Alien Buddha Press. He is a navy sailor and a nurse to adults with developmental disabilities. He has four children who joyfully take up all his and his wife's free time.

Matthew Borczon

a boy

just broke

my 18

yr old

daughters

heart for

the first

time

she says

she’s afraid

she will

never sleep

again and

I hear

her cry

in the

next room

until sleep

finally comes

in the

end it’s

me who

is up

all night

thinking

about all

the plastic

horses and

Barbie dolls

I fixed

over the

years all

the jewelry

I untangled

back when

you believed

my love

and patience

and glue

could fix

everything.

(For Hannah)

Matthew Borczon is a poet and navy sailor from Erie, pa. He has published four books of poetry; A Clock of Human Bones through Yellow Chair Review Press, Battle lines through Epic Rights, Ghost Train through Weasel Press and, new this month, Sleepless nights and Ghost soldiers through Grey Boarders press. He publishes widely in the small press. When he is not writing, he's raising four children with his wife of 20 years.

Matthew Borczon

Souls

(1)

hard

to dispute

the logic

of a

5 year old

Eliza wakes

up shaking

crying she

calls my

name

she is

afraid of

dying again

this feeling

swallows her

like a

hand inside

a pocket.

(2)

As I

hug her I

stroke her

hair and

give her

the Catholic

answers my

parents gave

me at

her age

don’t worry

it’s a

long long

way off

and when

it does

happen I

will be

waiting with

grandpa and

all your

family

Eliza’s voice

breaks

“Daddy

I’m the

youngest

so I

will have

to be

alone for

so long”

I think

she cries

her weight

in tears.

(3)

I can

only hold her

feel scared

I know

alone

it has

ridden

my shoulder

daily since

the war

I know

fear

of death

I have

held a

dead child’s

body and

handed it

back to

its father

I know

fear of life

after war

fear for

men without

legs or arms

fear of

my own life

without faith

with almost

no soul left

fear of

crowds and

the feeling

that no

matter how

many people

are around

I am still

dying alone

by minutes

and inches.

(4)

I say

nothing

just pull

her close

cry with her

in silence

as I

promise

to her

to me

to the universe

and every

religions God

that I

will get

some of

my soul

back

buy it

steal it

reclaim it

rebuild it

out of

something

or out

of nothing

some how

some way

I will

have it

so I

can leave

it with

her when

I go.

Matthew Borczon is a nurse and Navy sailor. He is the author of a Clock of Human Bones from Yellow Chair Review Press, and Battle Lines from Epic Rites Press. His next book, Ghost Train, will be out in June 2017 from Weasel Press.  Sleepless Nights and Ghost Soldiers is set for a release in 2017 from Grey Boarders Press as well. He publishes widely in the small press.