Greetings! Every week throughout the summer, BOA's staff and interns will share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem from Laura Read's forthcoming collection Dresses from the Old Country was recently featured in The New York Times Magazine with an introduction by Rita Dove.

Pentecost

The week after your father died,
I see you walking home after school
in your Wimpy Kid T-shirt,
and I don’t even know you, but I want
to call you over like a kidnapper
and tell you it’s only beginning.
Your head will always be a lit match
like the apostles in the stained glass window
when Jesus came back. But he will never
come back. I say this because you know
but still you will dream of it.
You will love books and TV shows
about time travel. Like the blue
police box you can get inside and go
back to the week before last.
Or maybe he will find you
like he does in these first mornings
before you remember.
He’ll always be wearing the same shirt
when he comes in to wake you,
like my dad in his olive stripes,
as if he never wore anything else.

Dresses from the Old Country is available for preorder from the BOA Bookstore.

Kick off your summer reading with BOA's Summer Sale—going on now! Take 30% off all BOA Bookstore orders for a limited time with promo code READBOA18!