-dissection in the theater of the postmortem-

Contains previously published material:

It was sometime in late evening

that I found myself drifting, as on a slow-

running stream to the house where the family first lived.

Disclaimer:

my father came home from work like the fathers

of many of my neighborhood friends,–– well,

their fathers in a way which had little to do with poetry.

no one living nor dead has disputed, nor can dispute

the documents I've presented in evidence.

Certain gratuities:
he came home from the road rarely bearing gifts;

no seashells hand-painted in script: “Cape Cod”
or little Seagull knick-knacks, or postcards: "Visit Scenic Buzzards Bay"!

although, come to think, I do recall gifts of miniature,

amber-colored beer bottles as grips for slot-head screwdrivers
used in abundance on his route as sales gimmicks.
"No more than two per sale" the Company decreed.
(the young oldman would hand out three per sale with a wink and a nod)

he also brought home small cut-outs of cartoon characters
hawking beer which were formed like end-table picture frames,

so let me be clear about what I’ve suggested about

my father rarely bearing gifts. he brought things home.

I’m fact-checking these entries for authenticity
as I move along to the chapter containing domestic animals.

A bestiary:
whatever cats were alive in the house at any given month
were curious of the goings on, but went on their way
without a critical display of any outward sense of emoting.

Annie and an appendix to "A bestiary":
It was my mother who fed the cats, who

cleaned the parakeet's cage, who
set the traps under the sink, who
flushed the goldfish down the toilet.

Butts and all:
she cleaned the ashtrays without commentary
but with an overt sense of ceremonial attentiveness.

she conned the bigger television out of him.

she invited the guests into the house after supper, giving him
the head’s-up as he entered the kitchen door, not open to debate.

Guilty:

she punished the wrong-doers, my brother and me,

residing in the only "upside-down" bedroom in the house.
adjudication and disposition was handed-down with swift precision.
our older sister was innocent by parental declaration of any wrong-doing.

That old gang of his:

after supper, out the living room window, on the corner with his buddies,

my father wore the pants in the family (as did all the husbands of all the wives)
and by unanimous acclamation I might add,
with fact-checking not required out there, on the corner amongst themselves.

                                                                                           Quequechan