Her Father's Heart as Brownie Starlet

Abstract

Her Father's Heart as Brownie Starlet Erin Redfern (bio) Keywords Erin, Redfern, grandfather, time, photography, airman, sight, capture My mother's dad is in the clouds. No, he's in the sea.JFK is on a plane. No, he's on TV. He was in the navy,once. This is the base in San Diego. It is July, 1960. She is fifteen. JFK is on TV. This is the base.Her shirt is white cotton. A salt wind liftsthe shining darkness of her hair. She sights into noon like a pilot. Her father's as not here as cloudsblown inland from sea to desert air. He crashed.He was captured. No, drowned. This is his drowned heart heavy in her hand. No, it's her Kodak Brownie Starlet.She holds and turns it toward her lookingpast its lens. The photo will be black and white and square and far away as JFK. She will send it to herself, where she is,with him underneath the waves. Her mother is gone, too. No,she's pinning her hair to attend the service for a body that's not there. The Civil Air Patrol is lookingfor her. No, it's looking for him. Whereis her house? Her bed? Her little brother? She is his mother now. No, she needs a mother, so lets the Dakon lenslook after her. In the photo JFK will be therewith his arm around her shoulder. No. Only bare sky and bleached wood siding. Her dark eyesnarrowed against sun and the Brownie Starlet, looking.In six months, she will have a new father. No, [End Page 304] she will have a new president, handsome like her father.In sixty years, she will be sifting the sky for contrails."Hello, Daddy," she will say. Or sometimes, "Hello, Mama." She was captured. No, she drowned. No, she's breathingsalt air thick with ocean. She is here. At the base. JFK is on TV.My mother's dad is in the clouds. No, he is in the sea. [End Page 305] Erin Redfern erin redfern's work has recently appeared in Fire & Rain: Ecopoetry of California (Scarlet Tanager), New Ohio Review, and North American Review, where it was runner-up for the James Hearst Prize. Her chapbook is Spellbreaking and Other Life Skills (Blue Lyra Press). Hear her interview with Dion O'Reilly on The Hive Poetry Collective at erinredfern.net. Copyright © 2021 The Massachusetts Review, Inc.