Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE DADDY STRAIN, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography First Line: Two friends over a chinese lunch Last Line: Can hatch any bird but flightless bromides. Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Comfort; Death; Fear; Dead, The | ||||||||
Two friends over a Chinese lunch, whose most plebeian eggdrop pretends the menu's Imperial Soup like a homely son named Galahad, we strip the wrappings from our words. Terror is the flavor in her mouth. The doctors say, "Cancer." All her thoughts turn ferrous to that magnet word and she dreams an older man - frost at his temples but heart cocoa-warm - to rock her tears and kiss her well. Out of work, my bag-lady fear seeps from under the shine of dish covers - another course. I want to curl up, a little girl against a dense tweed fantasy who'll pay the bills and bauble me through Tiffany's. Our manticore, composed in equal parts of Daddy, the well-aged eye of a distinguished Scotch ad, and childhood's gray-bearded God, can no more succor us than the sweet nest of our fortune cookies can hatch any bird but flightless bromides. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND |
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