Oh, a Thing You May Do

is find a wild imagining

to pierce your own absence

to let you see yourself

whole enough to change.

Yes, you’ll have to be whole

to become whole

to leave cramped quarters

of the mind.

For childhood, whatever it was,

whatever it did to you, will pass.

You’ll stop killing the faceless boys

in dreams, who rush at you in waves

of stifled rage.

And though

you wanted no part of him

whom people would not touch,

you’ll let him in.

Joseph Hardy, a reformed human resource consultant, lives with his beautiful wife Judith and wonder dog, Charley Girl, in Nashville, Tennessee. His work has been published in: Appalachian Review, Cold Mountain Review, Inlandia, Plainsongs, and Poet Lore among others. He is the author of two books of poetry, The Only Light Coming In and Becoming Sky (Bambaz Press Los Angeles, 2020 and 2023), a picture book, At the Reading of the Will—And a Boy’s Life Thereafter (IngramSpark 2023), and a graphic story, Golden, (2025) available on Amazon.