Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday

FATHER

 
Mountain is following me
Every few miles I look back, look back and it is closer
Mountain I met a few hours ago
Mountain that knew my name before ever I gave it
The driver is useless, a poet
He tells me I am lucky
“To be followed by Mountain is a compliment,” he says
“I wasn’t fishing,” I say, “I only want to live
Without this ash at the back of my throat”
Mountain is a creep. Only creeps never want us
To go no matter how they treat us. Only creeps grow larger
The further we travel from them
This creep that’s always the same creep in a different form
Today he is Mountain

 
William Lessard is the author of /face (KERNPUNKT Press, 2026). His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Best American Experimental Writing, Poetry Daily, Beloit Poetry Journal, FENCE, and McSweeney’s. He is the Poetry and Hybrids editor at Heavy Feather Review. More about him at: www.williamlessardwrites.net.

 
Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx