for my father
—the gills still swimming
with you, breathing for you, tumbling backward
toward some
future. Shallow breath.
A passing shiver. Your dream of light,
knowing no other
time, moves inside
rocking shadow of water, as if some
one still
stood on the broken
patio, haggling for hours
the price of a pool
lamp, its broken cord.
Stephanie Strickland has published 8 books of poetry and 11 digital poems, most recently the Vniverse app for iPad with Ian Hatcher and Hours of the Night, an MP4 PowerPoint poem, with M.D. Coverley. Two books are forthcoming in 2019: Ringing the Changes, a code-generated project for print based on the ancient art of bell-ringing, from Counterpath Press, and How the Universe Is Made: Poems New & Selected from Ahsahta Press. http://stephaniestrickland.com