<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Watching<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><i class="">for my father</i></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">You and I used to talk about</div><div class="">Lear and his girls</div><div class="">(I read it in school,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">you saw it on the Yiddish stage</div><div class="">where the audience yelled:</div><div class="">Don't believe them,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">they're rotten) —</div><div class="">that Jewish father and his</div><div class="">suburban daughters.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Now I'm here with the rest,</div><div class="">smelling the silences,</div><div class="">watching you</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">disappear.</div><div class="">What will it look like?</div><div class="">Lost on the bed</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">without shoes, without lungs,</div><div class="">you won't talk</div><div class="">except to the wall: I'm dying,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">and to the nurse: Be</div><div class="">careful, I</div><div class="">may live.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">What does a daughter say</div><div class="">to the bones</div><div class="">that won't answer —</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thank you to the nice man?</div><div class="">Daddy?</div><div class="">The last time</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">we went to the Bronx Zoo,</div><div class="">the elephants were smelly as ever,</div><div class="">all those warm Sundays,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">the monkeys as lewd.</div><div class="">But they put the penguins</div><div class="">behind curved glass</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">with a radiant sky</div><div class="">painted on the far wall.</div><div class="">And all those birds</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">lined up with their backs to us</div><div class="">watching the wrong</div><div class="">horizon. </div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Chana Bloch</div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (3/15/1940 - 5/19/2017)</div></body></html>