Why I Didn't Answer You Last Night

I disappointed

my father

in many ways.

 

When I was

12 he caught

me smoking.

 

When I was

15 he saw

me drunk.

 

At the age

of 17 I brought

him home a

cardboard paper

stained with

failed grades.

 

I angered

my father

many times.

 

I asked

him why

he never

called.

 

I cried

when on my

19^th birthday

he sent me

an email.

 

But the day

I killed my

father was

when I stopped

answering his calls.

 

Dad, it wasn’t

because I

didn’t care,

but you see,

I had died

and been dead

for many years.

Reviews

[JulieNorell]

This is very sad...Must have been hard...I do understand though...More than i would like to...I wish i could be the perfect child but really...Im troubled...

[Greg Skura]

I guess we all have the potential to kill our parents with the choices we make. Although I am not responsible for the reaction that my parents have to my choices.
That is truly their responsibility.

[Coyote Poetry]

It ain't easy to be a parent. Your poem tells a true story. A parent must love his child when they are angels or demons. I try to be less a talker and more of a listening. I learn a long time ago. Each of us must test life. In the end. Children and parent will need each other. Negative leave sad heart and great sadness when we arrive too late at caskets to apology. A sad ending to a poem that open many questions. A excellent poem.
Coyote

[Mauricio Montoya]

great job well done.

[Richard Williams]

Pretty direct and emotional stuff, and pretty good. I like the part about the cardboard paper with the grades and the ending, of course.

[Jonathan]

I like it not your typical write, but that's what makes
It all the better. thank you very much for sharing this, this
Was without doubt refreshing even though the write
Was sad. I saw that the ending could possibly be that
The girl did not not literally die, but rather that the girl
Was dead in the sense that she was no longer daddies
Little girl for that girl has long since died, but maybe she did
Just literally die.

wow, very odd here! didn't see the ending coming, very emotive though :)

[Calypso]

Wow. I feel terrible of this girl and her father.

[Goodbye]

Man, oh, man - that last stanza. So true of the effect that absentee and only mildly engaged parents have on their children. Excellent.

[reminder]

OMG what emotion this expresses! The piece reads like a plot map of regret and disappointment. Bravo!