Dan Brady

My Father-in-Law in His Garden

He walks the rows

of herbs and vegetables

carefully planted

like prayers,

tending each one with his

dirt-stained hands.

I watch from the

kitchen window

through the years

and the silence

between us.

I can see

inside the rind

of his heart

but not far.

For the Fourth-Grade Students of Washington Elementary School

I was asked to speak about poetry
at my niece’s elementary school. The night before
my visit I had a dream that I began my lesson
by repeating the phrase Malibu marigold over and over
and over again. I asked the students to join me.

Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold.
Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold.
Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold,
their tiny voices said.

Within this phrase, I said, as they continued chanting—
Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold—
is all you need to know about poetry. Listen to the sounds,
feel the vowels moving in your mouth. Malibu marigold.
Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold. The satisfying rhythm.

The repetition. The unexpected ending. It doesn’t rhyme.
Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold.
It escapes meaning. Or does it? What does it mean?
Can it mean any more than the sound and the pleasure?
Say it with me, children! Malibu marigold. Malibu marigold.

Malibu marigold. The next day, I told my niece of my dream
just before we entered the school. That’s weird, she said.
You should probably talk about something else.
So I went in and introduced myself and said nothing
of the sun-drenched coasts and the orange flowers

that guide spirits to the altars on the Day of the Dead
and I taught them nothing about what poetry really is.

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Dan Brady is the author of the poetry collections Strange Children (2018) and Subtexts (forthcoming), both from Publishing Genius Press, along with two chapbooks, Cabin Fever / Fossil Record (Flying Guillotine Press) and Leroy Sequences (Horse Less Press). Dan’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Apt, Big Lucks, Sink Review, and So & So Magazine among others. He is the poetry editor of Barrelhouse and lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife and two kids.