DADDY, I'M SORRY
 
I spend the day at school
learning more knowledge
making me far smarter
than my family,
especially my father.

He's so ignorant.

I arrive home at the end of the day
to find a house strangely silent, empty.
My family is missing.

Then I find the note--
probably a trivial matter.
At least they can write.

I read it and run
    --scared--
out of the house.

I can barely think--
what happened?
I don't know.

--a million thoughts--
 --nowhere to turn--

I arrive, breathless,
my dad will be okay--
just a minor heart attack,
caught in time.

I see him
sleeping in bed,
monitor beeping
tracking his heart
his strength, mine.

I'm so ignorant.

He taught me
how to laugh, how to cry,
how to survive.

I'm sorry, daddy.

PAUL VERNON DEFFENDALL
SEPTEMBER 8, 1992


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