Happy Father's Day Dad

The Perfectionist

My father helped me write a poem once; well
maybe I should say that he wrote the poem and
I transcribed it on a piece of foolscap paper.

The assignment was to write about some bears,
every other line had to rhyme; each stanza had to have
four lines; there had to be four stanzas. I was in Grade 4.

My father was a perfectionist, so the poem
had to be just so, just like every poem he had read
when he was young in a British public school.

I don’t remember what the teacher said about my work,
or the mark I got. My only clear memory of it all was
that father didn’t want to let me fail, at anything.

I wonder what he’d think of what I’ve written now.
He’d probably try to fix it.


© June 2019