Deaf

 

My father exists in a large room where he lectures to an audience which is mesmerized despite the fact that they are deaf and, moreover, are not even able to read his lips as they speak a wholly other language.

He said: Listen, listen, listen. Everything changes. The world moves in a long steady arc which describes a slow betrayal.

He said: Your grandmother died from eating only butter.

He said: When I was a boy giant turtles would rise out of the river and walk slowly through the village late afternoons and just before dawn.

He said: A father doesn't just drop out of the sky.  I've been here always and I know everything.

He said: Look, look, look at me. And he was standing before me naked, expansive on tiny stick legs with tufts of hair in unlikely locations.