It has been brought to my attention
that my father is dying
of lung cancer behind prison walls
they put him behind again and again
after he made the front page
of the local newspaper
as the mastermind
of three bank robberies
that shamed my mother
who did not live in freedom
as she waited for him
to come home
and make things right
for all of us to be together
in love while our dreams
came true and justice
was finally served
but it looks a lot different
when you see through all
its ugliness as you let him
slowly fade away when all
he wanted to do was be
among the ones
who all burned out
into an endless night
where my dead mother
no longer dreams.
KEVIN RIDGEWAY lives and writes in Long Beach, CA. He is the author of the poetry collection "Too Young to Know" (Stubborn Mule Press). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Slipstream, Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, San Pedro River Review, The Cape Rock, Spillway, Up the River, Suisun Valley Review, KYSO Flash, Home Planet News, Cultural Weekly, Big Hammer, Misfit Magazine, The American Journal of Poetry and So it Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library.