{"id":144,"date":"2025-10-23T23:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/?page_id=144"},"modified":"2025-11-07T22:42:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:42:38","slug":"my-father-called-out-for-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/poetry\/my-father-called-out-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"My Father Called Out For Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert McDonald<\/span><\/p>\n

Long after midnight, his urgency woke me from the bedrock of sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many times has he called for me these past few years<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

since my mother\u2019s been gone, for help to the bathroom, a glass<\/span><\/p>\n

of water, the wet sheets changed? It took a minute<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to remember he\u2019s half a continent away. And then I was awake, truly<\/span><\/p>\n

awake, sure that soon I\u2019d be getting the call, the phone call<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve expected, his departure. But hours paced by, the sky brightened,<\/span><\/p>\n

from night\u2019s long darkness to a velveteen blue. He was not dead,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

just alone in his assisted living studio apartment, in this time<\/span><\/p>\n

of plague, deaf and alone with his memory torn. With quavering hands<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

he tries to assemble the scraps. Five hundred miles but I heard<\/span><\/p>\n

his voice call my name. The sky took on the color of cutlery,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

then roses, and despite my grief, or because of my grief, just like<\/span><\/p>\n

every morning, the finches who live<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

in the ivy next door, the house finches<\/span><\/p>\n

stirred and sang.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nRobert McDonald Long after midnight, his urgency woke me from the bedrock of sleep. How many times has he called…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “My Father Called Out For Me”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"parent":322,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-144","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/144\/revisions\/199"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}