dad

a visit from a deranged man's son.

he's one of those creatures
that live on the shell of a rotting crab,
with gums blacker than those
burnt food flakes you find
at the bottom of the oven,
and no teeth to pretty them up.

he whispers to me
answers to riddles he never told.
he chokes on his toothbrush
and plays old sinatra records upside down,
dancing with the static.

he drinks five-dollar whiskey
from a spoon
and swears it's the best damn chowder
he's ever tasted.

and when it's time for me to leave,
he hugs
gently
lovingly
and i give him a kiss on the forehead
and say,
"good-bye, dad.'

and he smiles.

Author's Note

The ending was never what I had in mind, but I thought it would be nice to wrap it up in a loving kind of way.

Reviews

[Blue Moon Ice Cream]

You really bring this character to life. The two lines about the Sinatra records made me smile. I love how your poems often make no sense, but yet they somehow make perfect sense at the same time...if that's possible...

[Aleyah]

the second & third stanza are really touching :) I liked this!