In the Final Months of My Parents’ Marriage
Amorak Huey
We are building a flying machine, my father, my brother,
& me. We work in the attic of an abandoned house—
to reach this room, we lean the rusting skeleton
of a box spring against the wall & scramble up
through a trap door. Wood glue, balsa, complicated
mimeograph blueprint—it’s a kit from the Farm & Feed,
a gift, a getaway vehicle; although none of us
knows it yet, we are each in our own separate hurries
away from this place. The work is delicate, requires
a kind of care I’ve never had. They are both better
than I am at this, if it were left up to me, I would crack
these thin slices of wood, render them useless.
Down the hill, a chert driveway, crushed stone
& packed sand. Across the road, a field. Beyond that,
behind a row of scrub pine & water oak, a river.
But today it’s the field we need. An open space
to test our work. A rubber band. A winding tight.
A letting go & a grassy place to land.