New Dad

by Richard Dinges, Jr.

He squats between chairs
in a wide space
bordered by shopping
mall stores, over
a broad baby
stroller load. He
wears an extra large
running suit that
displays bare skin
between stretch pant
top and top jacket
hem. He shushes,
a soft rush of air
that skims loud squalls
with no effect. He
looks over shoulder
and apologizes for
the wrong reasons,
unfit, untrained
for this new role,
abandoned in public,
raw as a new born babe.