1952… galvanized by Patrick T. Reardon

Left to Right: David and Pat (1952)

1952… galvanized

I don’t want to think of you
at 18 months, chewing on
the metal end of a garden
hose with a look of close concentration
while I stand behind you
in a galvanized iron tub,
our swimming pool. You teased
at the puzzles of life and were
teased. You picked at the scab of
pain, ripping it off again and again to
get somewhere you didn’t know and
never reached. It was the way you knew to stay
alive until the raw suffering filled you like
helium and you rose, a Macy’s float, to hang
over your life until you cut the cord
and fell.

Originally published in Requiem for David by Patrick T. Reardon (Silver Birch Press, 2017)

Patrick T. Reardon is the author of eight books, including Requiem for David, a poetry collection published in 2017 by Silver Birch Press, and Faith Stripped to Its Essence, a literary-religious commentary on Shusaku Endo’s Silence, the basis of the recent Martin Scorsese movie, published in 2016 by ACTA. Reardon worked for 32 years as a reporter with the Chicago Tribune, specializing in urban affairs, and is now writing a book about the untold story of the impact of the elevated railroad Loop on the stability and development of Chicago. His essays, book reviews and poetry have appeared frequently in American and European publications.

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