Brittany Perham

Missive (2)

I don’t believe in beauty: my lover
beside me
beautiful: my father often
a liar: I don’t believe
you: my father always
I love you: father
I am always saying
father: you have never been
here in this house:
mother beside her lover
sleeping, brother and his often-lover
radiator hiss or is it whisper?
asleep in the room next door.
Here as in everywhere: father
I am always calling you. Here
it is Christmas Eve: I don’t believe:
lights-in-snow:
Actually snowing.


Brittany Perham
“Missive (2)” is from The Curiosities (Parlor Press, 2012).