Communiqué from the Home Front

The weather is unbearable without you.
Your dad is too depressed to talk about it.
I know he regrets never taking you fishing.

He wanted to be there for you
when you went on your tour of duty.
Vietnam rice fields still burn in his eyes.

I hope you do not come back like that:
Body twitching when it rains;
A stare like a dead carp.

The heavens just opened up now.
Your father rows in circles on the lake,
hands sighting the distance of emptiness.