My Father's Poems: August 7, 2022

Daily Diary, Day 706:

I debated about including this poem, because it is so angry. But the truth is that a fair number of my father's poems about his family of origin are either angry or sad. Just as much of his poetry about love are very sexual--and I confess I've been avoiding putting them up as well. But that isn't really fair to him and his memory. He was a lovely sweet man, but that didn't mean he wasn't a whole person. He was also a younger brother with a very toxic older brother who made his life hell in a number of ways when he was growing up. I didn't know this uncle at all well, we didn't see him much. And as I am an only child, (who had only one child) I don't have a personal experience of what this is like. But I do have a number of friends who are younger sisters, and from listening to them, I can say my father's experience doesn't seem all that atypical. I would love to get your reactions to this poem, especially from both younger and older siblings!

hot seat

eternal hell
burns in the flesh and mind
of helplessness in the grasp of power

like a hungry babe
screaming and ignored
smelling the weeping breast
of a sleeping mother

a spotted fawn
mouthing the cold teat
of murdered doe

child brother
to a first-born boy
living a lifetime
of second best

--Joseph Locke