A life unlived

A young man
terrified
of becoming his father
marries a girl
he barely knows

has never even
kissed

with no warning
where this strange union
will take him

Years later
the blame is all his,
she tells him
over and over

as he sits mute, curled
inside himself
waiting

Now, looking into my
father's coffin

I see the shape of a man
no more familiar
in death than in life.