"Apparition."
At the kitchen sink, trimming the lower blooms from forsythia
I've cut in the front garden, starting to set them
into the low, thick glass, and my father says,
Mark is making the house pretty.
He didn't speak to me the last five years of his life.
Why should I be surprised he'd use the third person now?
Though he did make sure I heard him, didn't he?
He did say my name so that I could hear him.
And I think it was in gentleness, a compliment,
and not in mockery.