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- John West
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For my Father
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- Fiddling with my phone
- I think of how much
- my father would have loved it
- the wireless way it worked
- his face would have mooned beside mine
- and he’d have asked
- how much did it cost
- how reliable was it
- he was fascinated by machines
- he told me about the differences between
- four stroke and two stroke motors
- why large musical instruments gave a deeper sound
- why one town got more rain than another
- how an aeroplane is able to fly
- what makes a bird so light
- what would happen to an astronaut’s face
- if he began to unscrew his helmet
- he was always teaching me words, big words
- he left school in Grade Eight
- he had enormous respect for two things, for words and for God
- but not in that order:
- he would have leaned across
- but he would not have touched my shoulder
- I’m certain of that
- that wasn’t the kind of thing that he did
- no matter how much I wished that he would.
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