Two Brothers

Lost their corner market, gaining a corner
on the market of despair, forced to forge
a cottage industry of threading hope
to a whole that knows no other hope.

This is their immigrant slog, an infinite
journey that is no man’s manifest destiny;
it is manifesting quite differently,
hamster-wheeling them to nowhere

like insomniacs who daydream of sleep.
Contrary to things seen, a fist in the mouth
can soothe, muffle the weeping, prevent
an open mouth from groaning its known groan.

They are told there is reverence in the suffering,
that there is something to be said for perseverance,
for delayed gratification. They wish they knew
what it was, why it must be this way.

Thad DeVassie's work has appeared in numerous journals including New York Quarterly, Poetry East, West Branch, NANO Fiction, Juked, Collateral, Unbroken, PANK, and Lunate. His chapbook, THIS SIDE OF UTOPIA, is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press. A lifelong Ohioan, he writes from the outskirts of Columbus.