Guest Poet
W.S. Merwin
Yesterday
by W. S. Merwin
My
friend says I was not a good son
you
understand
I say
yes I understand
he
says I did not go
to
see my parents very often you know
and I
say yes I know
even
when I was living in the same city he says
maybe I
would go there once
a
month or maybe even less
I say
oh yes
he
says the last time I went to see my father
I say
the last time I saw my father
he
says the last time I saw my father
he
was asking me about my life
how I
was making out and he
went
into the next room
to
get something to give me
oh I
say
feeling again the cold
of
my father's hand the last time
he
says and my father turned
in
the doorway and saw me
look
at my wristwatch and he
said
you know I would like you to stay
and
talk with me
oh yes
I say
but
if you are busy he said
I don't
want you to feel that you
have
to
just
because I'm here
I say
nothing
he
says my father
said
maybe
you
have important work you are doing
or
maybe you should be seeing
somebody I don't want to keep you
I look
out the window
my
friend is older than I am
he
says and I told my father it was so
and I
got up and left him then
you
know
though there was nowhere I had to go
and nothing I had to do
From "Opening the Hand," by W. S. Merwin,
published by Atheneum.
Copyright
1983 by W. S. Merwin.
http://www.poets.org/lit/POEM/wsmerw01.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._S._Merwin