Asleep

a tanka string from Shady Creek, Yarragon, 1952

my cousin
slumps like a little kitten
fast asleep
in this ancient high chair
by the wood fire stove

skin like milk
and bare legs dangling
when awake
his starry eyes ignite
the family’s hearts

this photograph
taken long before
that night he drove
down the unmade road —
a meteor in flight

he slumbers
unencumbered
by the strife
of this noisy world
as if still in his chair