Poets’ Corner: Feela for Father’s Day!

18 Jun Poets’ Corner: Feela for Father’s Day!

In my family, we never celebrated Hallmark holidays. Love and respect, my dad taught his girls, should not, could not, be turned on and off like a light switch based a date on a calendar. As we post tributes for Father’s Day, I hold word treasures like this from TIO regular contributor David Feela to my heart. Words inspired by his dad reminds us how we love them no matter how or how often they fall – or hunker down– it is rarely from grace.

My Father Retires

The spell begins
in the middle of the day,
often while reading a book.

Sunlight through a window
warms him. The sentence he’s unraveling
slips to the bottom of the page,

then drops into his lap,
cascades over his knees
and tangles around his ankles,

tugging him even deeper.
The recliner tips, the footrest extends
and he levitates like a magician.

I’m never sure how it’s done,
but for a short time
he vanishes from the earth.