From Freedom and Remembrance
College phone call from estranged father
“Just remember We love you,” he says,
This the first time, I remember,
. . .Remembering. . ."We love you. .."
That lightning strike of joy,
My heart so struck
I could never speak it to him.
Never speaking that heart strike even as he died,
Forgiven his failings of attention,
Tacit understandings of regret;
A hard, Depression childhood,
Toiling on Tobacco Road,
Stuttering man-child
Steeped in cruelty
and ridicule. . .
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