Special Feature: "the schoolboy" by Ross Balcom, Frequent Contributor

the schoolboy
Ross Balcom

i.

my father
was dying

I saw him
as a child

in the old
schoolhouse

sadly erasing
his name

from
the blackboard

ii.

I wrote
his name

again and
again

on the
blackboard

each time
it vanished

my father
was dead

iii.

the blackboard
blank

my father
an echo

the boy
walking out

the schoolhouse
door

forever

Poet's Notes: My father, Francis Balcom, died on April 12, 2016.  He was 94. I wrote this poem several days after his death.