On the Phone with Dad, a Monologue
I was just watchin’ this movie.
I got a box of DVDs from this guy
Out at the flea market.
Gotta be a least fifty or so
And he was only askin’ twenty dollars.
Other day I saw this ship on TV.
It’s owned by McDonalds
And all lit does is suck up
Everything in the ocean
And turn it into those fish sandwiches.
It doesn’t matter what it is,
It gets ground up
And then people buy that shit
And the boat just keeps goin’.
I ain’t been able to keep off the weight
Since I was in the hospital
With that real bad pneumonia.
I was in pretty rough shape.
They brought in the preacher
And everything.
I told him, son, if it’s my time,
It’s my time.
It wasn’t my time.
Little while back I busted my tooth
Up in the front
And had to go to the dentist.
But by God, it’s good as new now.
They put that stuff on it,
Shot it with that light
And it’s as hard as a new tooth.
You got them teeth like mine,
Thin and weak.
My daddy had what they called
Horse teeth.
He could eat gravel
And it wouldn’t bother him one bit.
Must be a lot of blacks
Down where you are.
But I bet they ain’t as bad
As the ones you get
In the cities.
I don’t hate nobody,
But some of ‘em make you
Hate ‘em, the way they act.
I understand why they’re mad
And all that
But most of ‘em don’t even know
White people were the first
Slaves.
We were called
Indentured servants.
When you tell them that,
Well, it just blows their minds.
They can’t believe it.
I’d like to go out into the world
And see something.
What I’d really like to do
Is take that train up to D.C.
And go to the Smithsonian,
See what they got.
They’ve got dinosaur bones
And every-damn-thing under the sun
So I could just go around,
See It all.
The sun ain’t like when I was a kid.
Back then you could stay outside
All day and be fine.
Now you’re out there five minutes
And you get burnt up.
Just a lot stronger now
And I guess it’ll keep gettin’
Worse.
Hell, I don’t know.
4 thoughts on "On the Phone with Dad, a Monologue"
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OMG-
Incredible.
I wanna revisit this gorgeous/gut-wrenching dose of reality …
And continue to avoid fish sandwiches.
Though I like them ok enough.
😛
A good poet must have good ears, yours must be super. It is as if one was on a party line and could over hear every word.
It was such fun. By the way those Roman slaves were as white as the driven snow, most of them. We have been making slaves as long as we have been on this earth. Sometimes I wish I had a slave, handy as a pocket on a shirt they would be. But I don’t know why in the world slave and cruelty had to get partnered up. I would think kindness would be more likely, since the enslaved made such a good difference in one’s life.
I struggled with deciding to post this poem because I was worried people wouldn’t catch that the father, while surprisingly insightful about some things, is completely out of touch on others, such as race. The lines about indentured servants are meant to read as tone deaf and misinformed because they are. Your comment worries me because if you are being earnest about slavery then I fear you have missed the point, and also that you think that slavery–an inherently unequal structure of dominance–could ever contain anything like kindness. If you were being ironic in some way then I apologize.
No, it is not slavery that is the enemy, thank goodness that battle is over and won. It is what we have allowed to take its
place that is so deadly today, right now. Some folks appear to feel they have a right to have such dominance over one race or the other that whatever punishments or attitudes they deal out are justified. Racism is a scar on our humanity as a nation. Will it never end? I still like the lesson your poem teaches us.