He didn’t know the thrill
of the kill, but he knew
he didn’t want to kill
the thrill for his father.
Everything in him felt scared,
told him not to do it—
words he could not echo.
He sat in the tree stand
with his coloring books,
glanced up if something
quieted the loud silence.
The father knew that all
books are coloring books,
that knees on hills tell
time better than clocks
on walls, that a bullet
and a mountain are about
the same size. But here
was the best shot
to pass something down:
Stand up slowly, son.
This is your time.
Cameron Conaway is the author of 5 books, including Malaria, Poems, which was a “Best Book of 2014” by NPR. His work as a journalist has appeared in Newsweek, The Guardian, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. Conaway helps creative teams focus at GetFlow.com. He’s on Twitter @CameronConaway.