Eulogy for My Old Man
Prompt: Speak to Me-Dead Poets Live
Dad,
Can I still call you that?
You may be stardust or some ethereal being now.
I don’t know if it’s a burden to be saddled with the old identity.
It’s been 40 years since you passed through the veil.
You'd be over 100 and pissed off if you were still around.
I wonder what happened that day.
Your daughter had died just a month and a half before.
Did you go back to alcohol or something harder?
Were you leaving for another woman?
Did you spend all of her money?
Had you just driven her to madness? (We do that to our loved ones)
Yes, I know your demons. We shared some of them.
You made her mad.
And you wanted to walk away.
You wouldn’t have heard the shot or felt any pain.
Poof! You were free of bodily concerns.
Maybe you got some answers to spiritual conundrums.
I miss your friendship.
Speeding out to “gods country” on Sunday mornings.
Finding cliffs and canyons to follow to hidden places…
