The Unmoved Mover
A father is not a thing to be pushed.
One pushes a knight to E5,
For instance,
Or a mad hatter to take Reading Railroad.
But a father, no,
You tease him and promise things unfulfilled
And perhaps unfulfillable.
You try to learn what he knows
And disappoint him countless times along the way,
Before learning perhaps the only thing —
Despite his best intentions —
He could ever teach you.
“Take these these mistakes,”
perhaps while casting for a walleye,
somewhere in rural Minnesota,
“Make them yours,
but make more of them than I.”
