My father shut
the bathroom door
behind us,
shoved me under
an icy shower,
slapped me
each time I broke
eye contact.
I couldn’t
keep looking at him,
knowing how his hands
vibrated slightly.
At times I fear
my own hands,
the wings
of a dragonfly
unfolding,
their inherent buzz.
ONDŘEJ PAZDÍREK is a Czech-American writer and translator. He is the winner of the 2017 Beacon Street Prize in poetry from Redivider. His work has been nominated for the Bettering American Poetry and Pushcart Prize anthologies. His poems and translations have most recently appeared in Poet Lore, Western Humanities Review, PANK, Guernica, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Meridian, and are forthcoming from RHINO Poetry and Gulf Coast, among others. He lives in Iowa City with his wife and two herding dogs.
