iii. Family Parable

Here are my familyportraits.

My father’s walls are decorated with palm-leaf crosses andphotographs. Cross, frozen little girl, cross, frozen little girl, cross. Theportraits are mass-produced Christmas cards taped to the wall. He is not in anyof the portraits.

iv. Alcoholic Fable

I don’t know why I’mstill alive. Just to drink and have a good time I think.

My father used to have curly blond hair, bright blue eyes,and killer shoulders. Now he is shrunken. His hair is short and gray. His noseis bulbous and red.

v. Bad Joke

These two niggers walkinto a bar.

My father tells jokes. At the restaurant, the manager is ablack man. My father glows under his complements and customer service. Then hetells more jokes. I am tempted to tell a joke about an old, wrinkled, drunkex-cop with a fat wife who has nothing of consequence in his life; but I can’tthink of a punch line.

vi. Love Story

I love you.

My father does not love me.

vii. War Story

I went to Vietnam andtrained the insurgents. You have no idea what atrocities I’ve seen.

My father did not go to Vietnam.

viii. Sister Myth

Remember when I wentto Alabama when your sister got sick? I’m so glad I could help take care ofher.

My father went to Alabama two years before my sister wasdiagnosed with cancer. He got off the train with a half-empty bottle of JackDaniels. She called me crying. I heard the sound of cartoons in the background.My father was laughing. My sister’s children were not laughing.

ix. Urban Legend

I never had to shootanybody when I was a cop.

When my father was drunk, and I was two years old, he triedto shoot me with his service revolver. He tried to shoot my sister and mymother. I don’t know who else he tried to shoot but missed.

x. Mountain Pastoral

Come stand out on myporch and take some family portraits in front of my beautiful mountains.

My father does not know what real mountains look like. Hismountains are hills covered with electrical towers. I want to take pictures ofhis home while he is not looking. Of the pile of dog shit on his rug, the bowedwooden floors, the smoke from his Marlboro Reds, the open pasta boxes, thecheap beer, his wife’s large forehead, the dead plants, his fake Christmas treecovered in tinsel, the series of portraits of my sisters and me betweencrosses.