Father and Sons.(Poem)

 
FATHER AND SONS 
 
   I 
 
   He's been away for a week, 
   so I telephone. 
   "Dad, your voice is too loud." 
 
   II 
 
   Two weeks with my sister-in-law 
   and her ordered parenting: 
   my boys are like polished silver. 
 
   III 
 
   The cap still on the lens 
   he points his new red telescope. 
   "I can see the craters on the moon!" 
 
   IV 
 
   Between courses my two boys 
   leave the Peking Inn 
   for a yoyo break. 
 
   V 
 
   Hiding in a distant room 
   crying under a bed 
   sobbing to himself in gasps 
   I can't see him in the twilight. 
   "I was cleaning the car as he said, 
   but he kept on at me, finding fault. 
   It's always like this. 
   He doesn't want to pay me the money." 
 
   VI 
 
   Your flight aims toward Delhi at midnight. 
   Brown eyes gaze up, his arms reach up 
   and draw me down, planting a chaste kiss 
   on my lips. 
   Then he says: "And good night mum, 
   wherever you are." 
   Next morning 
   taking his school bags from my car 
   face blank as a wall, he doesn't say 
   goodbye. 
 
   VII 
 
   "There are eighty seven different vegetables in this 
   shop 
   and you'll eat only three. 
   How boring to be your father." 
 
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