National Poetry Month: Bryan Borland

"Introducing a Grandson to His Grandfather"
(Bryan Borland)

You will know him through your own
sense of humor, the practical jokes
of heredity that make your eyes water
to the detriment of friends. 

You will know him through acts
of kindness, the anchor of heart
that compels you to share your treasure
with less fortunate pirates. 

You will know him, little Noah,
when a cat stakes her purring claim
against your leg, when you walk
the first of many dogs on winter nights. 

You will know him in your name,
in your knees, in your near
tone-deaf ears that hear melodies
beautiful in the absence of pitch.

BRYAN BORLAND is a poet and the publisher of Sibling Rivalry Press in Little Rock, Arkansas. He will read this Saturday in Decatur at the Georgia Center for the Book, along with Sibling Rivalry Press poets Megan Volpert, Loria Taylor, Jessie Carty from Charlotte, and Stephen Mills from Orlando. "I’m here to say I’ll not only wear the label of gay poet, but I’ll wear it like it’s designer fashion." he said in a recent interview. "I’ll wear it like it’s a tiara. Even if it means slapping the tag of ‘gay poetry’ on any poem that could be considered even a small bit queer." His own collections include My Life As Adam (second printing, 2011) and the forthcoming Less Fortunate Pirates: Poems from the First Year Without My Father.