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A Poem with a History
My fifth poem, from 1984, revised.
Background
My father’s only brother, only sibling, died on Christmas Eve 1983, 75 days after entering CCU due to a severe heart attack.
Michael (my first partner) and I had tickets to fly from Baltimore to Pittsburgh on Christmas Day to visit his family in Charleroi PA. Dad asked us to accompany him that far on his drive to his hometown, Sharon PA.
Back then, you could cancel a flight the day before and get a full refund without questions.
My father clearly was under a lot of stress handling his own grieving and knowing he would need to be supportive of his mother. Also, he had been working under contract 90 minutes from home, commuting to the Harrisburg PA area every Sunday evening and returning to Lutherville MD Friday evening.
Dad was hospitalized the previous June for severe depression at the Sheppard & Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson MD. It was the same place ten or eleven years before where he went to seek treatment for alcoholism.
The poem explores a visit with him when he was hospitalized. The setting is an accurate depiction of the grounds of the hospital. (See photo art below.)
