The new law
says you can abandon your child
in an emergency room,
no questions asked.

A young father
carries his sleeping boy
through the hospital doors.

Later, parked at the boat basin,
he takes a knife from his pocket,
cuts an unfiltered cigarette in two,
lights the longer half in his mouth.

He was a medic in the war.
In his basement are five bronze eagles
that once adorned the walls
of a dictator's palace.