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There I was with my father again alive walking around the back yard together, and I hardly noticed that it wasn’t our back yard or that he looked like he was in his fifties. We were laughing at something, joking around, each comment making us laugh even harder. But then he was crying and I didn’t know why, his face contorted, unable to speak. I turned and hugged him and whispered in his ear the words I wanted to say and he wanted to hear… and as if I had uttered some magic formula I found myself sitting in a movie theater beside my suddenly alive again brother. The movie ended, and as the credits rolled, we both agreed that it was good. Then I said, “But I think I fell asleep for part of it,” and started telling him the dream I’d had, how our father had visited from the dead, and what I’d done—and, to show him, did again, whispering those same words to my brother.
Jeffrey Harrison’s latest collection is Between Lakes (Four Way Books, 2020).
Double Visitation from Between Lakes copyright 2020 by Jeffrey Harrison. Appears with permission of Four Way Books. All rights reserved.
Beautiful and heartfelt! I was very moved. I also noted your pronounced left brow line, indicating right-hemispheric dominance, a sign of your sensitivity.
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I have those dreams, sometimes happy, sometimes not. I prefer yours. Thank you for your uplifting poem.
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Oh how the dead haunt us — this is a beautiful poem!!!!
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