Charlie M. Brown

The Price of Thread

— after Misery by Kathe Kollwitz

And sunlight knocks at the window,
but doesn’t enter. Grief

waxes a father slowly
into the way he stands.

The eyes of the child he holds
address the unweaving loom.

The walls are breathless. The breathless
are walls—

A mother’s hands pull at her strands
to find a thread of reason.

And the boy waits
below. Patient between inhale, exhale. The note

only played between
the black and white keys. And here

I am waiting,

knowing
soon the child will wake,

and say maybe those who jump from burning
buildings aren’t any less

afraid.
In the end, they know

the ground is the only place we’ll find
rest.

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Charlie M. Brown’s poems and essays are forthcoming or have appeared recently in journals such as Tahoma Literary Review, 30 North and The Scarab. He is currently an undergraduate student studying creative writing at Salisbury University in Maryland. He enjoys film, photography and music.