Almost Grown
- Almost Grown
My father loves my sister so much, he has to strike her. He cares for her so deeply that he has crossed, for the first and only time, into my mother’s domain.
He has caught his daughter red-handed at the front door, trying to sneak home late from her boyfriend’s house.
And my father, poor ghost, knows too much. Without ever leaving the house, he has overheard every sweet thing this man, an old buddy of his, has whispered to her in bed.
Tonight, my sister discovers her only power. As she tussles with him on the front porch, she is all heat and righteous passion.
He will never try this hard again to tell anyone how much he loves them. With his belt, my father tries to tell my sister what he knows a man is capable of, but all he does is tell her fortune.
Cornelius Eady is author of five books of poetry: Kartunes, Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (winner of the 1985 Lamont Poetry Prize), The Gathering of My Name, You Don’t Miss Your Water, and The Autobiography of a Kikebox. He is the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including an NEA Fellowship in Literature, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry, and a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Traveling Scholarship.
