I Have my Father's Voice Flashcards
When I walk into a room
- present tense
where my father has just been
- similarities
I fill the same spaces he did
- same physicality
from the elbows on the table
- same mannerisms, expressions and features
to the head thrown back
- same actions
and when we laugh we aim the guffaw
- similar sense of humour
at the same scape in the air.
- same silence
Before anybody has told me this I know
- he knows he is like his father
because I see myself through
- same eyes
my father’s eyes.
- same views
When I was a pigeon-toes boy
- amplifies youth and its awkwardness
- past tense (reflection)
my father used his voice
- verbally abusive
to send me to bed
- voice of authority and controlling
to run and buy the newspaper
- actions of control
to scribble my way through matric.
- tone is matter-of-fact
- constant when growing up
He also used to voice for harsher things:
- lose his temper
- remonstrate
to bluster when we made a noise
- forceful anger
when the kitchen wasn’t cleaned after supper
-
when I was out too late.
- he won’t relinquish control
Late for work, on many mornings,
- memory
one sock in hand, its twin
-
an angry glint in his eye he flings
- short tempered
dirty clothes out of the washing box:
-
vests, jeans, pants and shirts shouting
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