{"id":7647,"date":"2021-04-08T18:38:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T18:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=7647"},"modified":"2021-04-08T18:38:06","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T18:38:06","slug":"dead-beat-dad-more-poems-by-brian-rihlmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/dead-beat-dad-more-poems-by-brian-rihlmann\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead Beat Dad & More Poems by Brian Rihlmann"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\ni.
\n 
\nDeadbeat Dad<\/strong>
\n 
\nmy poems are my children
\nand I’m their deadbeat dad\u2014
\nI create them, love them,
\nnurture them for a little while
\na few hours…a day…
\nsometimes a week
\nif that’s what it takes
\nuntil I feel they’re ready
\nor I’m just tired of them
\nthen I boot them out
\nI open the door and say\u2014
\nyou’ve gotten all I have to give
\nso go on now
\nyou\u2019re free
\nget out there and live
\ngo see what they’ll make of you
\njust don’t expect too much
\n 
\nsometimes they don’t want to go
\nthey look back at me
\nfrom the front steps
\nthey plead with their eyes
\nand their sad little faces
\nbut I set mine to stone
\nand shut the door
\n 
\nlike any parent
\nof course it pains me to know
\nthey may be mocked
\nor laughed at
\nor misunderstood
\nthey may wind up
\nrotting in dumpsters
\nor abandoned in dark
\nand dusty corners
\nbut there’s always the possibility
\nof being found by someone
\nwho needs them
\nsomeone who hears
\nwhat they have to say
\nand that’s the best
\na deadbeat dad like me
\ncan hope for
\n 
\nii.
\n 
\nOne Day Much Too Soon<\/strong>
\n 
\nshe walks unsteadily as a toddler
\nand trembles as though terrified
\nalways a nurse by her side
\nI\u2019ve watched her come and go
\nfrom the house next door
\ndiminutive and middle-aged
\nwith pageboy hair and thick glasses
\nbut I haven\u2019t seen her
\nsince the ambulance came that day
\nand I haven\u2019t heard
\nthe unearthly sound she makes
\nhalfway between a laugh and a cry
\nI never knew which
\nmaybe she didn\u2019t either
\nbut now as I stand outside, listening…
\nthe absence and the silence
\nreminds me of all we get used to
\nand all the strangeness we\u2019ll miss
\none day much too soon
\n 
\niii.
\n 
\nOne Hand On Her Ass<\/strong>
\n 
\nIf a young man
\never sought my advice
\nI’d tell him this\u2014
\ndon’t kick yourself too much
\nnot over the times
\nyou stumble and fall
\nnot over the time
\nyou think you’ve wasted
\nlying there
\nuntil you’re able to get
\non your feet again
\nand not over all the people
\nyou believe you’ve let down
\nbecause the world
\ncouldn’t possibly go on
\nwithout you, right?
\ndon’t kick yourself
\nfor any of it
\nin fact make a habit
\nof not kicking yourself\u2014
\nlife’s a cranky old mare
\nshe’ll kick you plenty
\nstomp you when you’re down
\nshe doesn’t need
\nany of your help
\noh\u2014and if you have to walk
\nbehind her
\nkeep one hand
\non her ass
\nand stay as close
\nas you possibly can<\/p>\n

 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n 
\n 
\n 
\nBrian Rihlmann:
\n 
\nBrian Rihlmann lives and writes in Reno, Nevada. His poetry has appeared in many magazines, including The Rye Whiskey Review, Fearless, Heroin Love Songs, Chiron Review <\/em>and The Main Street Rag. <\/em>His latest collection, “Night At My Throat,” <\/em>(2020) was published by Pony One Dog Press.
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\nRobin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times<\/a> at Artvilla.com<\/a> ; his publications include
\n 
\nAll the Babble of the Souk<\/em> <\/a>, Cartoon Molecules<\/em>, Next Arrivals<\/em> and Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems<\/em>, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande\u00b4s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist<\/em> <\/a> and the recently published Tesserae<\/em> <\/a> <\/u>, a translation of Carmen Crespo\u00b4s Teselas.
\n 
\nYou may visit Aquillrelle.com\/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop <\/a>about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)<\/a><\/p>\n

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  i.   Deadbeat Dad   my poems are my children and I’m their deadbeat dad\u2014 I create them, love them, nurture them for a little while a few hours…a day… sometimes a week if that’s what it takes until I feel they’re ready or I’m just tired of them then I boot them out … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[868,808,796,366,401,43],"tags":[18,136,874],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7647"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7651,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7647\/revisions\/7651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}