A Visit with my Dad, Working on Our Family Tree

 

Writing assignment last week was to write a pantoum.  I have never been that enamored of poetry structures, but writing this pantoum was interesting to do, kind of like a puzzle.  Here's my pantoum about my dad and my great grandfather.

A Visit with My Dad, Working on our Family Tree 

Lee Heffernan

 

did you ever steal a car

I ask my dad

not really, maybe just for a joy ride

a rarity, this unheard story 

 

I ask my dad

how he's feeling 

it's a rare unheard story  

when he's not feeling lousy in the morning

 

how do you feel, Dad?

on this long day, in your long life

lousy in the mornings

but in the afternoon, we search for family

 

on this long day, in his long life

his crumbling body 

can't keep us from finding roots

welcome Ancestors, join us

 

in our crumbling bodies

we drink coffee

welcome in my great grandfather

who built a radio tower

 

we drink coffee

talk of Ireland, New York, Boston

and that first radio tower

in Bordeaux, France

 

Ireland, New York, Boston, France

the Navy, out of funds, discharged him

so he sailed back home to Boston

a laborer, he lived a good long while

 

discharged because the Navy ran out of funds?

how does that even happen?

a laborer, he lived a good long life

and fathered four sons

 

how does this even happen?

from cane to walker to wheelchair

my dad fathered seven children

he brought us all on a joy ride