You’re Not Here

No children.
But we’ve got legacy, right?

Are we really the
Promised visage
Of our bloodlines?

We drank beers
& got drunk
Fucked in someone
Else’s bed

The Santa Cruz mountains
Right outside the window

There was dread
In our vibrations
An unspoken fear

Too little said about our future
Too little action by me
To start a family
To make a good thing sure

Now we have
To do things the hard way
Texting when we should be kissing
Skyping just to share a moment

The easy way
Would have interfered
With our lives

Now, I’m on the road
running from
an ancient battle
called my parents

The miles on foot
The sun at dawn
The body exhausted

To the body I return
But I still think about
Our night in Detroit
And how the ducks
Never stopped quacking.

They devoured
that gingerbread house
and we both said, “Wow,”

You’re not here,
And that’s a good thing,
Right?

We both got what we want?
We both have careers?

Chad W. Lutz was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1986 and raised in the neighboring suburb of Stow. Alumna of Kent State University's English program, Chad earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Mills College and currently serves as an associate editor for Pretty Owl Poetry. Their writing has been featured in KYSO Flash,Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Gold Man Review, Haunted Waters Press, was awarded the 2017 prize in literary fiction by Bacopa Review, and was a 2016 nominee for a Pushcart in poetry. Chad took second overall at the 2016 Two Cities Marathon in Fresno, CA, and has competed in five Boston Marathons.