Phone Call from My Father

Listen, I've got a confession to make.

I'm alive and well and living in Seattle.

It wasn't my heart that stopped;

that was some other sweet sap.

I slipped out the back door

of the ER, hailed a cab, hopped

a freight train, hitchhiked

the last few miles. I'm alive

and well and living in Seattle.

Tell your mother I'm sorry

for all the trouble. Did the insurance

cover it all? It wasn't me you

poured into the Pacific from the back

of your sister's boat; that was

some other poor bloke. So

the good news is, just as you'd hoped,

I'm alive and well and living in Seattle.

© copyright 2008 David Denny

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Published in The Dos Passos Review

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