Erric Emerson is a poet residing in the westerlands of Philadelphia. He is a founding member of Duende literary journal. His work has appeared in Beautiful Losers, Crabfat, Five:2:one, Neon, Gingerbread House, The Black Napkin, Mead, and By&By, among other places.

The Passing Down

a 1980-something coed rehab in upstate New York // an all-nighter tête-à-tête of learned favorite bands and vices and conception // a woman whose enlarged heart was not High Fantasy but low chances after 30 // a woman I still hear about like the last great queen before some war crushed a dynasty // a man who improved upon the teachings of an Air Force pilot and first generation // a man who provided Playstation and Nascar and Lego metropolises // a man who made a trailer park in the mountains somewhat less a quarantine zone for a boy of 9 // a man broken // a boy who was told his veins are 100 proof with tiny devils on either shoulder // a boy does as a boy does as a boy would // a boy is 27 with delirium tremens and a sincere want of out // a boy who is illness and mental and neither of these things but also a bird drunk on wind currents // a boy has little boys and little girls of his own made from words and titles // a boy tells his unborn child things he will never have to // you will not have to live in such a way, not be born in the rush of water against the sharpness of rock.