Canadian Poetry Online top banner link to Canadian Poetry Online home page link to University of Toronto Libraries home page

Reflection on Finding A Note My Father Wrote Me 16 Years Ago

John Oughton
From:   Take With You What You've Left. Toronto: Sixth Floor Press, 1993.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher.


This is the first time
I have appeared in a poem
                                                                               Your disappearances: short (temper & work)
                                                                               Long (losing interest in this family)

I have taken trouble, now
to conceal my identity.
                                                                               Then you must have known,
                                                                               finally, who you were.

I have dyed my hair green.
I am getting to the count-down stage.
                                                                               Tanks full, silver nose
                                                                               aimed at the silent stars.

Just gave my scientific books to the local
university. Came in with zero.
                                                                               Snapshot: you at six, short pants, holding up
                                                                               tray of baby chicks: small, warm zeros.

Plan to leave the stage
at that level, too.
                                                                               You take with you
                                                                               what you've left behind
— Jack                                                                                                          — John


John Oughton's works copyright © to the author.


Canadian Poetry Online bottom banner link to University of Toronto Libraries home page link to Digital Collections home page link to University of Toronto Library catalogue link to Canadian Poetry Online home page link to University of Toronto Libraries home page link to Contact Information page