Mum. A Boy can get lost when they never were When a hungry heart can’t bear to replace the man’s face with the imprint that boy can’t remember leaving there. You broke my heart, she said. No, it was already broken, I replied. It was just that I was never enough to fix it. And then you got sick. I’ve heard that When people escaped the Iron curtain The Soviets arrested their families And friends. I know why they did it, the Soviets. They used the love, and that’s why I also know why those people ran. But for all your running you can only get so far. The tunnel you dig from the womb to this poem Does not collapse - It entangles your heart. in the fishing line left on that quiet and empty beach. And then you got sick. So little time to sit on the sand and start the unravelling. So many knots. So few ends. I always wanted to get back to the boy you used to take into the city. Arm in arm to the Coles cafeteria My tray over filled With my wonder of you. But they closed it down. And then something happened to us too. Too many things. And try as I might, I just can’t get home. Try as I might, Mum, I just can’t get home. Michael