by Katherine L. Szerdy
My father told
me
He drove to
California
Today,
All the way
there and back
From his
hospital bed
In one day.
He is
eighty-two and
Said it rained only a little
in Nevada.
I asked him
how the food was
He said, “It
was just
all right.”
On the way
back he stopped
at Fort Benning
to see
his buddies.
He is
eighty-two and said
he drove to
California and back
In one day
And that he
almost didn’t
Make it back
In time
To see the forsythias bloom
and to get the garden
planted.
What makes "Traveling Man" a poem is the 3-line gradated (in length) form and phrasing. Also, the repetition and the chronology wrapping in on itself mirroring the way the mind affected by dementia loops a story over and over again.
What makes "Traveling Man" a poem is the 3-line gradated (in length) form and phrasing. Also, the repetition and the chronology wrapping in on itself mirroring the way the mind affected by dementia loops a story over and over again.
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