In the circle of his arms, a father cradles his child.

Through the window of the moving bus,
the sun catches the boy's pale hair and skin, sets them ablaze.

The father moves his hand over his son's eyes creating
a shadow as deep, as impermanent as rain,
the child relaxes in his father's arms, sleeps.

The shadow maker watches fields chase each other outside,
farmhouses dotted across the landscape, herds of cows grazing.

The bus rocks as it pushes on towards the concrete lines of the city,
and the father struggles to keep his hand steady over the small boy's eyes.

The boy sleeps on, his heartbeat drumming its song against his father's warm body,
the weight of the circle held by a boy asleep in his father's arms.

Emily Hunter is a CHE graduate living in Vancouver, Canada.