Father's Day

TWO POEMS AND A REFLECTION**

I. "HE SPEAKS IN YOUR VOICE, AMERICAN"

I understand
my father
more
after reading DeLillo's account
of Bobby Thomson's 1951 homer
than I ever did
living in the same house
for 18 years

How could I have been
so blind?

II. "AND THERE'S A SHINE IN HIS EYE THAT'S HALFWAY HOPEFUL"

At my age,
23,
my father had already survived
the bug-infested
snake-swarmed
lonely
damp
dangerous
jungles
of Vietnam

What right have I
to give up?

--

**In the cool pallid summer dusk,
I saw my dad weep over his dad
and realized that someday
I'll be the one in the twilight,
weeping

(posted also on medusaskitchen.blogspot.com, June 16)