Thank you, Douglas and Patrick and Frank and Judy and Joanna and anyone else
who responded (or responds - emails are coming in cockeyed to the clock at
my end) - A friend of mine (she of recent love poems) pointed out the
inaccuracy or the confused image of his daughters being afraid of him - like
he was a frightening character when healthy, when what I meant was his gaunt
figure when ill with tubes hanging out of his nose, etc., frightened them
each morning when they awoke and saw him. They would then get used to him
and go off to school, and he would look forward to them arriving home from
school later in the day. They are 8 and 6 years old. I will work on it
quickly (hopefully to get it right before it goes off to the archives :-).
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 10:25 PM
Subject: Re: snap - Burke
> Powerful & sad stuff, Andrew.
>
> A backward looking snap, the other snaps within fading...
>
> Doug
> On 16-Aug-05, at 11:43 PM, Andrew Burke wrote:
>
> > I'm impatient today,
> > wasting hours with trivial pursuits.
> > Tomorrow is the funeral
> > and yesterday was his death.
> >
> > His daughters can stop
> > being afraid of him.
> > His wife can stop
> > saying 'it's unfair'
> > and 'we'll keep going'.
> > His father knows the truth
> > of all the bad news now.
> > There is no hope.
> > His brothers organise
> > the rosary, the requiem,
> > the funeral, the wake ...
> > When all the business of death
> > is put away until next time,
> > like Christmas decorations,
> > they will cry, privately,
> > by themselves.
> > His little girls will get
> > too many presents on
> > their next birthday,
> > and their mother will
> > always cry on occasion.
> >
> > But a young boy still
> > runs in my mind, stops
> > and looks at me with
> > his cheeky smile,
> > always with
> > a big green apple,
> > half eaten, in his hand.
> >
> >
> >
> > (for my nephew Adrian Churack
> >
> >
> Douglas Barbour
> 11655 - 72 Avenue NW
> Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
> (780) 436 3320
>
> lake
> holds
> sun moon stars
>
> trees
> hold
>
> stars moon sun
>
> Eli Mandel
>
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