Bernard Henrie
A single dad for all practical purposes, my daughter and i enjoy an airtight bond. Without planning, i became godfather to three sisters who had no dad. They have now been in my life for 25 years. Just when i thought i was all through parenting, i met a poverty stricken little girl on a trip to viet nam in 1995. I've now sent her through school which is the thing she most wanted. It just means not buying a new car---a small sacrifice. I believe their collective points of view now inform my work and it is a rare line that does not somehow reference their sensibility.
Don’t Pass Over this Long Word Too Quickly
I had just finished my thesis when
labor came to you grinding its teeth
in your awesome belly. In the episodic
night I took your bag and my bag,
as though it might be money from a bank
job, so great the terror of many hours
in a featureless room with nothing to read.
Some Lamaze and little Melinda nine hours
later, her fists already clinched as though
refusing to ever write or count, her face red
as a small camp fire.
Waking from your doze, your stupefied
holiness three-quarters deep in Vicodin,
I offer my gifts of greeting card and four
Chocolates wrapped in gold tinsel
from the downstairs shop, you say one word:
episiotomy.
Bernard Henrie administered social service programs in Los Angeles County for 20 years before becoming a staff writer for an environmental publication in southern California. His publication credits include MiPOesias, Shampoo, Boston Literary Magazine, APT and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. Four of his poems were anthologized in The Wild Poetry Anthology and The Pirated Poetry Anthology published by Farfalla Press. Mark Doty selected his poem as second best for the year in the Interboard Poetry Competition (IBPC) for 2007. He is a foreign film buff.