Dear Dad<\/p>\n
Now that you are dead<\/p>\n
I thought it time to have a chat<\/p>\n
That chat<\/p>\n
You know, the one that ends with<\/p>\n
you owning up<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dear Dad<\/p>\n
Your words of apology<\/p>\n
I dreamt last night or some other week<\/p>\n
Are refused<\/p>\n
It\u2019s too easy to say them<\/p>\n
You\u2019re not forgiven<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dear Dad<\/p>\n
The trauma you delivered like a postman<\/p>\n
Far outweighed the life I had<\/p>\n
When I escaped the brunt of your torment<\/p>\n
It was sublimely peaceful<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019d gone<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dear Dad<\/p>\n
In Australia the colours are green and red and black<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the gum trees and the kookaburras<\/p>\n
Only natives<\/p>\n
which flourish, which truly belong<\/p>\n
and live well here<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dear Dad<\/p>\n
I\u2019m hoping that purgatory is for left footers<\/p>\n
Who fall off the rails<\/p>\n
Claiming atheism doesn\u2019t count<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve been baptised a catholic<\/p>\n
Hopefully, there\u2019s no escape<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dear Dad<\/p>\n
Now that you are dead<\/p>\n
the words of apology and<\/p>\n
the trauma you delivered like a postman<\/p>\n
removed me from belonging anywhere<\/p>\n
So I changed my scenery, got me a new landscape<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dear Dad<\/p>\n
In your absence, I took up Taoism,<\/p>\n
got me a new passport,<\/p>\n
rented a post box and started recording<\/p>\n
every conversation I have.<\/p>\n
Thanks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Dad Now that you are dead I thought it time to have a chat That chat You know, the one that ends with you owning up Dear Dad Your words of apology I dreamt last night or some other week Are refused It\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1278,"featured_media":64891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[3441,3583,3581,3475,3584,1372,3582],"class_list":["post-63851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses","tag-jlnash","tag-australia","tag-deardad","tag-janenash","tag-kookaburra","tag-native","tag-psychopath"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1278"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63851"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64942,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63851\/revisions\/64942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}