Another Fight

Seventeen and the phone rings at midnight,

Oh dear, it’s just your dad they’ve had another fight.

Mom says, “Just go back to bed. You know how this goes.”

Awake I lay until the old rooster crows.

Off to school trying to clear my head,

I lay donating blood on a hard fold out bed.

Rushing through the door mom’s ghost white

A gun has gone off, not just another fight.

We rush to his house no ambulance in site,

Terrified I am, as he’s been taken in flight.

Many surgeries and hospital visits will follow,

Thankful for the man above, dad will still be here tomorrow.

-Kendall Powell