Rosaly DeMaios Roffman: How My Father Does It

Two good women keep him going—
when they say “yes” he says “no” in mid-sentence
and they argue over him—the blonder one saying,
that’s the way it is, we have to share him—
the younger one howling, I saw him first—
we used to go dancing together—they are like brittle
sixteen-year-olds scrambling to be number one
but the truth is both are moving closer to his end.

Dylan Thomas wrote the ultimate father poem—
asking his father to not go gentle into that good night.
My father is in a constant rage, nothing gentle—
He wants to be left alone so he can spit on the floor.
He breathes the oxygen which the HUMANA folks
set down in the house. He drives his car—
though one of the women took his keys away.
His own young doctor is so clearly annoyed—
Your father comes to my office anytime he wants.

About the firehouse—this doctor says
No one ever went there for oxygen before

Tomorrow, I fly home to teach Prometheus—
that story of saving the universe with fire
and then enduring the eagle punishment
but my raised voice will be for my father
who—bleating and with half a lung
rode a bicycle to the Margate firehouse
and let firemen take him to the hospital.

His doctor admits that was colorful,
original—but of course he is angry—
No one ever did that before
Here’s what you have to do—
Get together,
Will you—he says
And one of you kids
Just read him the riot act

But I don’t answer
It is in my eyes
It will be in words on Prometheus
tomorrow—punished for defying his father
great Cronus—and for giving humankind
the gift of fire—I will speak about fathers
I will speak about eternal punishment

I will speak about those fathers
who will not just lie down
give up their annoying secrets
and die for anyone any place, anywhere.

~~~~

Copyright 2025 Rosaly DeMaios Roffman

Rosaly DeMaios Roffman, Squirrel Hill Poets facilitator for 24 years, handset the type for U of Hawaii’s first poetry magazine, co-edited the prize-winning Life on the Line and is the author of Going to Bed Whole, Tottering Palaces, In the Fall of a Sparrow andI Want to Thank My Eyes. She was brought to London by the BBC to read her poems celebrating “The Wild and the Sacred” as part of the series Writers from Abroad. She has collaborated on 28 pieces with dance companies, composers and other poets. Her poems have been translated into Mandarin, Japanese, Slovak, and Hebrew. In 2021, she was honored at a dedication ceremony acknowledging her work as founder of the interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Myth and Folklore at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.