19 March 2009

Philip Schultz

[from Philip Schultz's Deep within the Ravine, 1984, Viking Penguin]

[excerpt from "The Hemingway House in Key West"]

. . .

There is something dark in my nature.

One night I woke to see my father staring
out of my bedroom window. "Papa," I cried
as he turned to show me the fire fading
in his eyes like a pilot light. Our shadows
locked like clock hands as he whispered,
"I am bankrupt . . . there's something I must tell you . . . "
but he said nothing & the next morning I found his body
in a bed soaked with urine & his eyes staring at the ceiling
as if asking a last question the silence would never answer.

All my life I have wondered what he meant to tell me.

Deep within the Ravine: 2

No comments:

Post a Comment