Stitches
See those faint scars
on my little finger –
I was eleven, and
those were the first
stitches I ever had.
I had cut my hand,
and all the blood
alarmed my father,
a military man who usually
hid his emotions.
In the base ER, when they
started to sew up
the cut, my father
(who had been to war)
had to turn his face away.
Suddenly I understood
the way he loved me.
Sharon Hoffmann is a writer based in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Publications include The Hooghly Review, New York Quarterly, Beloit Poetry Journal, Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives (Harvard University Press), Paddler Press, South Florida Poetry Journal, Letters, Wild Roof, Sho, and other magazines. Awards include fellowships from Atlantic Center for the Arts and Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs, two Pushcart nominations and a nomination for Best Spiritual Literature.
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