Running back and forth from the living room
\nto the kitchen of that small apartment
\nwith my younger brother, carrying magazines,
\nis my first memory of having fun, rolling them up<\/p>\n
tight in the way I invented and showed him,
\nsince the idea was to sneak up behind
\nour father and spank him, each of us shrieking
\nwith delight when we made him reach out<\/p>\n
to us, turning away from our mother
\nwith her head bowed over the dishpan,
\nand when he went back to his shouting, we ran
\nfor more magazines to surprise my father,<\/p>\n
who had never shouted, but did now
\nbecause she wouldn’t stop suspecting his lie,
\nhis betrayal, which my brother and I, just three
\nand four, knew nothing about then, only<\/p>\n
wanting to keep on laughing about the fun
\nof forcing our father, who would leave
\nagain soon, this time for good,
\nto turn back and reach out to us,<\/p>\n
so our mother would not go on
\nwith her crying anymore, and make us cry.\n
Follow McNair’s thinking about this poem through his revisions of it.\u00a0(Line changes are highlighted in yellow; revised line breaks are indicated by yellow verticals.)<\/span><\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\t\t