Howie Good
Fathers and Sons
The writer Alexander Dumas had a son who was a writer named Alexander Dumas. Dumas pére, a massive egoist, came to regret sharing his name, a feeling he did nothing to hide. Then one night he dreamed he stood on the summit of a mountain made up of all the books he had written – The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask, etc. Little by little, the mountain shifted, slithered, gave way beneath his feet, and he found himself standing on a pile of ash. The dream left him in tears. His son quietly held him after the only time he ever recounted it. Fathers demand obedience; sons must be satisfied with revenge.
Howie Good is the author of Gunmetal Sky, a 2021 poetry collection from Thirty West Publishing.