In passing.

IN PASSING BY DAVID STALLINGS 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 12

My young self drives an old Volvo

up Fourth Avenue for the first time,

just below Yesler overpass

near where I work.

He has left his Colorado home forever,

bound for graduate school in Seattle.

I will hail him as I often do,

reach for words

of confidence

and fathering he has long

missed.

But not today.

Fuck it.

I am old and lonely.

This time, it is he who smiles first—

then drives on,

not looking back.