Chapin City Blues

Weeks into autumn, someone found the father
hanged from the same groaning tie-beams,
the hayloft black with bottle flies.

But that was 1983. Ontario, California.
Which is to say, the bottle flies are dead. So, too, the ants.
And neither field nor barn is where I left it.

I’ve never spoken to anyone about this. Until now, until you.

John Murillo is the author of Up Jump the Boogie, and Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry, where you can find this poem. Currently, he is an associated professor of English and the director of the creative writing program at Wesleyan University in Middleton, CT.