Knots by Joseph Stroud
Trying to tie my shoes, clumsy, not able to work out
the logic of it, fumbling, as my father stands there,
his anger growing over a son who can’t even do
this simplest thing for the first time, can’t even manage
the knot to keep his shoes on—You think someone’s
going to tie your shoes for you the rest of your life?—
No, I answer, forty-five years later, tying my shoe,
hands trembling with this memory. My father
and all those years of childhood not being able to work out
how he loved me, a knot so tight it has taken all my life
to untie. Art by R. Kikuo Johnson Recommended listening: I've Got That Tune - Chinese Man Links of the Day: Snoop Dogg narrating 'Planet Earth' Fisheye Photographs of China Tree Book Tree The African Village where every House is a work of Art