We Shall Rest
The elm split by lightening stands
above the bench where my father sat
the summer he could no longer breathe
enough to walk to the Avalon
without stopping. I sat next to him,
a little bored, a little tired of
his child-like need—his insistence
on walking even when he could not
walk. In the film, we watched
that day, a group of actors are
rehearsing a play. The star runs through
his lines in the car in which he is
driven to and fro from his hotel
to the provincial …
