On Father’s 69th Birthday--By Sanjeev Sethi--India

On Father’s 69th Birthday

    (In his hospital room)

Everyone has a father  —

but only some fathers

sow the seed

for their sons

to break into song.

Historians chronicle

the cave-in of civilizations.

I can see your decline —

see it with precision and pain.

Father, you want to hold

the space you held.

But, is it my fault,

that your hands

now need me?

Sanjeev Sethi is the author of three well-received books of poetry. His most recent collection is This Summer and That Summer (Bloomsbury, 2015). His poems are in venues around the world including 3:AM Magazine, The Tower Journal, Peacock Journal, Red Fez, Soul-Lit, Poetry Pacific, and elsewhere. He lives in Mumbai, India.