The Symbol of Abandonment
Moses (patriarch, drawn from water)
fled on a White Star Liner, steerage class.
All aboard for the promised land!
Dropped dead amid a heatwave
scourging Chicago (City of Big Shoulders).
Didn’t even leave us his surname
Lennon (lover, blackbird).
His absence forever signified
by an em dash on a birth certificate.
Fevers of the Mind 