WEBVTT

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This poem is called
"My Father's Leaving."

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"When I came back, he was gone.

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My mother was in the bathroom
crying, my sister in her crib

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restless but asleep.

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The sun was shining
in the bay window,

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the grass had just been cut.

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No one mentioned
the other woman,

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nights he spent in
that stranger's house.

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I sat at my desk and
wrote him a note.

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When my mother saw his
name on the sheet of paper,

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she asked me to leave the house.

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When she spoke, her
voice was like a whisper

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to someone else, her
hand a weight on my arm

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I could not feel.

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In the evening, though,
I opened the door

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and saw a thousand
houses just like ours.

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I thought I was the
one who was leaving,

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and behind me I heard
my mother's voice

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asking me to stay.

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But I was thirteen
and wishing I were

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a man I listened to no one, and
no words from a woman I loved

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were strong enough
to make me stop."