Half Mast

It is a Viking name

It is a cold and weathered

Drift wood

Name

It is a name turned blue and stone and stiff

It is a chiseled

Still born

Box of teeth

She keeps him

As she keeps

My Self

Small and swaddled

Wet and wondered

Like a puppy

Or a bowl of fruit

She’s wrong

She’s mean and gone

She’s dead even to the dead

My Viking boy is grown

And cracked and puffed his cheeks

He’s smart

And big

And safe

Like a college

Or a light house

He’s mine

My brother

My older

Only Mine

All

Mine Like a trading card or a spoon of sugar MINE!

It is a Viking name

Eric Eric Eric

(Can you open up for me real quick? There we go, Good girl.)

~Skin and Toast