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Father This Is for You
(In the Manner of Philip Whalen)
Because
you were a preacher, you
Expected
a good, mannerly child.
Instead
You got
ME!
Well,
Father,
I didn't
meet your expectations.
True, I
developed a facade of
Goodness;
I was a
good-natured, well-behaved
Mannerly
child
Whose
goodness was beyond question
When I
was in the company
Of
outside adults.
But at
times
When I
was alone with you
I became
argumentative and questioning
Of
authority.
I never
could keep my mouth shut.
Someone
reported to you
I had
been practicing self-abuse.
(What you
called it—
Not what
I called it).
When you
accosted me,
Demanding
to know if I had been
Practicing self-abuse,
I
informed you I wasn't practicing—
I thought
I was pretty good at it.
You tried
to be stern,
But I
knew
You
almost laughed.
You
finally just turned
And
walked away.
W. Ray Dunn
**********
Honorary Woman
for Stuart
He sat in
the circle
of seven
laughing female faces,
out of
place as a frog on a flagpole,
comfortable as his old Pendleton shirt.
Discussion groups shifted with the speed
of strobe
lights. Wine glasses, soup
spoons
waved in heated air.
The
waiter, beguiled, couldn’t resist asking
how it
felt to be the only man in the crowd.
Seven
voices chorused,
He’s our honorary
woman. He’s welcome
anywhere we go.
Himself
announced to the table at large,
Good conversation
has no gender.
I’ve been lonesome
in a group of men
talking sports.
Crooked
smile still a bit puzzled,
the
waiter shrugged and poured,
kept the
cups and glasses full
as talk
swirled.
Patricia Wellingham-Jones
Published in x is for xylophone
Spring 2001
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