Millard Ernest Hasbrook, Sr.
Cascade Mountains.
June 1997.
The Last Time I Saw My Father
was November 28, 1999
in the afternoon Pacific Time.
He slipped from one shell into the sea
until another shell came his way.
On my dresser, he stands on a boulder
lodged in a river with rapids.
He smiles, teeth bared
like the grizzly bear on his shirt.
Bear was one of his totems,
as was Eagle with out-stretched talons.
And Dad still speaks to me
through Elvis songs on the radio.
father
MEH, 1972.
some say to remember
you changed for the better
ten years since you died
yet you still come between your offspring
and i wonder how you can rest
after denying your eldest
so why do i still chase you
i take buses and trains
through your soul because
longing alone cannot tell
stories of ancestors
~ Originally published online in Hope at the Center (2010). Republished in my poetry collection Circle…Home (2011).
