[img_assist|nid=919|title=Synchronicity by Clifford Ward © 2006|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=150|height=137]A father’s poem
If you find a city of steel
mountains shading sleepy luncheonettes
Know that I walked here
If you find a night of neon
kisses, in a garden of saxophones
Know that I loved here
If you find a river of iron
legs, and a thousand wooden ladders
Know that I prayed here
And in that place
we all begin, under the Heartbeat-tree
Know that I too was held
And loved
And was given sleep.
Charles O’Hay is the recipient of a 1995 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in poetry. His poems have appeared in over 100 publications, both in print and online, including Cortland Review, New YorkQuarterly , Gargoyle, and West Branch.