Oh cloud kicker you're not an orphan you're an angel with
friends in high and higher places warm and waiting
for your return
cloud kicker
sun skimmer
son of someone surely
life of all heavenly events anyway and adored through and
through
            with you there is an air of ascension
thick mist of myth and anticipation
and we who wander earthbound ache ache ache to catch that
thin silhouette against the afternoon sky
                                                                        blinded with jealousy
with urgency
we imagine you falling
another hot stone to burn the dirt
tale to tell our children
to hold tightly as we
spin
oh spin
oh spin
oh spin into our graves

Brian McGackin is the author of BROETRY (Quirk Books, 2011) and IN CASE OF DEATH (Not a Cult, 2018). He has a BA from Emerson College in Something Completely Unrelated To His Life Right Now and a Masters in Poetry from USC. He lives in Los Angeles, where he enjoys Guinness, soccer, sonnets, and comic books.