Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MEN WITHOUT, by TIMOTHY LIU Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: My father is a coward, and I have grown Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Cowardice; Fathers & Sons; Love; Estrangement; Outcasts | ||||||||
My father is a coward, and I have grown to love the man who took my hand, afraid of leaving my side or asking the head nurse for a blanket even while I lay shivering on a gurney with an IV in my arm. Helpless and restrained, I saw a father who made no move to stop an incensed mother from feeding their colicky baby -- sick of raising a bottle to my mouth, she dropped me into the cradle from a height of four feet. After twenty years, he told me how he called the cops who could do nothing, all on record in a box somewhere. I love men who still wear uniforms sewn with care by women expert with needle and thread. Where is she who mended mountains of clothes that do not fit me now? Who is that man who weeps unheard inside my body? I love men who do not raise their voices in a crowd even when they are moving in the wrong direction -- men who were never loved, I love. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HOUR BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF: 2. HERMAN THE BASTARD by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR LITTLE CITIZEN, LITTLE SURVIVOR by HAYDEN CARRUTH GOING OUT FOR CIGARETTES by BILLY COLLINS HOMO WILL NOT INHERIT by MARK DOTY DEFLECTION TOWARD THE RELATIVE MINOR by FORREST GANDER ON A CERTAIN FIELD IN AUVERS by JOHN HAINES ON LOVE: MARINA TSVETAEVA by EDWARD HIRSCH |
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