I heard you eating cereal
at the breakfast table
the clink of stainless on ceramic

Just like when you were alive
still eager for me to drive
you to school

Where you were learning
your numbers and discovering
how high you could swing

But instead of welcoming
your good morning smile—
the first break of my day

Some damned part of me questioned
how you could be here again
and that was enough

For you to escape my grasp
like an amusement park balloon
lost to the summer blue sky

And I awoke this time for real
deflated in the still-dark dawn

Bartholomew Barker works with Living Poetry, a collection of poets in North Carolina. He has published a full-length collection, a chapbook and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work has recently appeared in Tipton Poetry Journal, Free Verse Revolution, the Gyroscope Review, Naugatuck River Review, among others. http://www.bartbarkerpoet.com