Jake Dennis: ‘The Lesson’

The Lesson

“It’s ‘saw!’,” he thundered, “Saw!” The crackling wood
—“Can’t you see?!”—collapsed to orange blocks.
My yawning kitten stretched and purred. “You should
be …” Wiping snot and tears, “He was the fox,”
I said. Once upon a weekday we
caught cabbage whites to frame. I wished
the book flew up our flue to God. “You’re mean,”
I sobbed. The page remained unchanged. “Persist!”

Reading Kafka in Jacob’s room under
The Starry Night, our cat in frame beside
your ash, betrays me back: Despite the thunder,
did you know I meant to read, I tried
to say, the word I saw? That night, in bed
“The Magic Faraway …” my father read.

Jake Dennis