{"id":197,"date":"2012-10-24T14:24:15","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T18:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/?page_id=197"},"modified":"2016-09-01T09:10:01","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T13:10:01","slug":"poetry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letter to my father<\/strong><\/p>\n

I turned the corner on Wilbur Street,
\ndriving home from work,
\nadmiring the perfect line of pink and purple crabapple trees,
\nexploding colorful branches,
\nin the setting sun,
\nwhen suddenly
\nmy heart stopped.<\/p>\n

I had to fill my chest with the cool spring air
\nand get my heart to start beating again,
\nand recognize,
\nthat the short man in front of me
\nwith a dirty brown overcoat and a worn-out Fedora,
\nhis palms clasped tightly behind his back,
\nwas not you
\nFather.<\/p>\n

For one short second though
\nI thought I had another chance
\nto tell you that
\nI am no longer ashamed of your
\nold, worn out clothes.<\/p>\n

I imagined I could tell let you know that
\nI too walk with my hands behind my back.
\nMy children think\u2014they wouldn\u2019t say it to me\u2014that I am an old man, who,
\nlike you,
\nplaces his denture in a cup half full of tap water,
\nwhen he goes to sleep.<\/p>\n

For a short second
\nI thought
\nI could touch your shoulder,
\nand tell you that I now know.<\/p>\n

And even though this short man in brown overcoat was not you.
\nI do have another chance, here,
\nin this letter
\nwhich I send off to you by express
\nheart mail.<\/p>\n

Forgive me Father.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

What did they do to you Daddy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What did they do to you Daddy,
\nthat your eyes are so grey,
\nand heavy,
\nlike fields of dirty snow,
\nand you repeat Yes, Yes, Yes,
\nso that you may make it to an uncertain
\ntomorrow?<\/p>\n

Is life so sweet,
\nand does the sun shine so strong?<\/p>\n

Who taught you to say yes?<\/p>\n

At this late hour,
\nwhen the sun is setting
\nand my head is heavy,
\nI wonder
\nWhat silent secrets are you hiding from me?<\/p>\n

What did they teach you Daddy?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A poem to my Father.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daddy, please, tell me, what did I do
\nwhen, in the garden,
\nI fell and cut my knee so deeply,
\nJust as the sun was setting behind the church?
\nI remember red burning blood,
\nSurrounded by deeply green grass,
\nWhat did I do?
\nAnd when you slapped mother like a thunder,
\nand told her that she could leave,
\nand that you loved her no longer,
\nwhat did I do then, Daddy?
\nPlease what did I do?<\/p>\n

Today I told my son that before horses
\nhe loved elephants.<\/p>\n

\u201cTanas\u201d I said, You called them tanas
\nas you lined them up,
\nin a long row,
\nan entire family, a treasure.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what was before that?\u201d
\nhe wanted to know, and
\nI told him that before elephants
\nhe loved butterflies,
\nand my son\u2019s black eyes were
\ndeeper and shinier, imagining
\nthe past he no longer remembered.<\/p>\n

Today I feel sad,
\nand the water tastes bitter, Father,
\nbecause you are not here
\nwith me,<\/p>\n

I miss you so badly.
\nI would like someone to tell me
\nWhat I did?
\nFor I have no one who remembers left.
\nAnd I would like so much to know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter to my father I turned the corner on Wilbur Street, driving home from work, admiring the perfect line of pink and purple crabapple trees, exploding colorful branches, in the setting sun, when suddenly my heart stopped. I had to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1090,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-197","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1090"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/197\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/grunfeld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}