When You Say “Uncle”

By Michael Montlack

I sometimes hear Father. 

A foreign country 

I never planned to visit. 

Still you take me there 

when you say Uncle. 

Feeding me a half-eaten cookie.

Repeatedly asking your mother

why I have to go home. 

When you say Uncle, 

I realize I am home. 

When you say Uncle, 

it is enough.

---

Michael Montlack (he/him) is the author of two books of poetry and editor of the Lambda Finalist essay anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press). His recent publications include Prairie Schooner, Cincinnati Review, The Offing, Barrow Street, and North American Review. In 2020, two of his poems were nominated for Pushcart Prizes and another was a finalist for Best of the Net.