Dad
I dreamed you alive last night
a revisit of our Sunday drives
to Ladner seeking blackberries
I came running back to the car
my ice cream bucket filled
with blackberries, my wrist
full of red cuts. Blackberry juice
some still trickling from my mouth,
I grinned at you.
I dreamed you back to the river
where you took me fishing
a black slimy bullhead
my first trophy fish
I was proud
you looked at me with disapproval
as I poked my fish with a knife
till its guts oozed out.
I dreamed you back to the pear orchard
the biggest pears where at the top
of rotting tree limbs. You shouted
a warning at me to be careful
I was eager to please you and ventured
far out on fragile limbs
Septembers crisp chill reddening my face
but it was your branch that snapped
and you crashed heavily to the ground.
You broke your heel.
I dreamed you back to Fraser Street
you on your nightly walk
I drunk out of my mind
swearing at two girls passing by
and I saw your face, that look
and I tried to walk straight
tried to apologize,
tried to make things right
but you quickened your pace
as if I was a stranger.
Copyright © Darrell Saunders | Year Posted 2009
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