Contributor Series 5: Dramatis Personae
Phantom Limbs of Family Trees
By Bryan Borland
By Bryan Borland
I am history’s orphaned
sibling, the retold story
of the men in my family
and our phantom brothers.
Granddaddy named my mother
after Sergeant Morley Joe Colvin,
323rd Bomber Squadron,
91st Bomber Group,
a nosedive casualty, he
holds our place
in the Eastern hemisphere.
Marshall Borland also
went down in flames, my paternal
grandfather’s brother whose
house and bones melted
and merged with the delta soil.
I was myself a younger brother
for thirteen years, before
lungs met clot and Glenn Colvin Borland
evaporated. Now my uncle
knows the emptiness,
a severed limb, my father gone,
the arm you lose, the missing half
that sways in the wind.
Bryan Borland’s poetry has appeared at vox poetica in 2009 and 2010. His most recent poem, My Companion Piece, appeared in February 2010; his poem Weeds was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2009.
Bryan, I enjoyed hearing you read this on Annmarie’s 15 minutes of poetry. Great interview.
This book about your father is going to be amazing Bryan! Keep at it!