Marcus Cafagña

Breakfast

When Corey wakes
at the same time I do,
he stands in the draft
of the kitchen shivering,
but that's not the way
I want to remember
a boy so shy.
Once I slice my bagel,
spoon the creamer
in my coffee,
he slips past me
and says he's sorry
even though our elbows
never touch. So often
we would sit at the table
though so seldom together,
half brothers separated
by decades, by autism.
But that was years
before our family
had to bury his ashes
on the side of a hill.
When I think of Corey
I see him sipping
juice through a straw,
pausing to flap
his hands in the air
as if by magic
he could shoo us all
to the farthest corners
of our father's house
and eat his meal in peace.

Marcus Cafagña is the author of two books, The Broken World, a National Poetry Series selection, and Roman Fever. Poems are forthcoming from Crab Orchard Review, Hunger Mountain, Many Mountains Moving, and Manthology. He teaches in the creative writing program at Missouri State University. He lives in the Ozarks of Missouri.

All content Š2006 by Ward 6 Review and the individual authors, unless otherwise stated. No content may be reproduced without the consent of the authors.