Parental Guidance Relinquished

my father
makes his
life sentence
go by faster
when he helps
sew the
uniforms
worn by
officers
in the line
of duty
the same
uniforms
they were
probably
wearing
when they
dropped me
off at a
special home
for orphaned
man child
survivors
of recently
deceased
mothers
who got
paroled
for good
behavior
from this
prison
where
we’re
all doing
time.

Kevin Ridgeway lives and writes in Long Beach, CA.  Recent work has appeared in Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, Big Hammer, Lummox, Gravel Magazine, 48th Street Press, Whiskey Fish Review, Incandescent Mind and Olentangy Review, among others.  His latest chapbook is Contents Under Pressure (Crisis Chronicles Press).