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Trapper Markelz (he/him) writes from Arlington, Massachusetts. He is the author of the chapbooks Childproof Sky (Cherry Dress, 2023) and Off To War, Daughter (Rockwood Press, 2026). His work has appeared in the journals Baltimore Review, Passengers Journal, Pine Row Press, Wild Roof Journal, The Dewdrop, and Poetry Online, among others. Learn more at trappermarkelz.com.

No Daughters Left to Carry

Trapper Markelz

I hiked on a summer day with my daughter
up a rock pile. We stepped to the summit
after tiny hands scrambled on shale
to read a sea of green from a lumber perch.

It was then I learned she wasn’t wearing
any socks. A mile of mountain and a mile
of blisters to go with it. I’d like to think
my bedside manner got the best of me that day,

but in stoic silence, I hoisted her
upon my shoulders to carry her down.
Over each root and almost rolled ankle,
I built a stitch of restive irritation
I wish to un-remember.

But memory is a funny thing. I asked her,
years later, what do you remember?
Your pain? My frustration?
The downward inertia
of our descending silence?

But she remembers         the road
we did not take,       the cliff and its edge,
the tin roof diner       with booths
and craft root beer.

She will never be that small again—
how she clung to my hair
over ridge and rock.
How I set her down sweaty
at the end,

a slice of my soul left in that parking lot.

I can see myself returning to that trail
someday, when she is grown and gone,
with no daughters left to carry.

 — Trapper Markelz