ODE, AT THE HOSPITAL


My father’s moustache aced geometry.
My father’s moustache makes cowboys blush
with its hard line. My father’s moustache
has two spots, one light in one dark,
like a black-eyed pea, or a tube t.v.
shutting off. My father’s moustache talks
like Ricky Ricardo, tells fortunes, chants
Our Fathers in its sleep—it dreams blue seas.
My father’s moustache survived chemotherapy.
My father’s moustache goes by Antonio
if you’re family. If not, try a cup of water
under your bed—it cures everything.


JESSICA GUZMAN is the winner of Product's 2016 Poetry prize. She is a doctoral student at the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Normal School, Meridian, and Barely South Review, among other journals.