No Small Hole

Poem by Brian Mosher + Interview

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We sit in a circle of green plastic lawn chairs
   — my uncles, my father, me -
in what Don, the youngest uncle, calls,
“The meeting that never ends.”
A middle-aged adult, still I feel a child among them.
Reeling from the pain and humiliation
of my recent divorce, which only adds
to my feelings of inferiority to these men
for whom vows are always kept, I bear
witness to their quiet ritual beneath an ancient maple.