A BILL TO MY FATHER

I am typing up bills for a firm to be sent to their clients.
It occurs to me that firms are sending bills to my father
Who has that way an identity I don’t often realize.
He is a person who buys, owes and pays,
Not papa like he is to me.
His creditors reproach him for not paying on time
With a bill marked “Please Remit.”

I reproach him for never having shown his love for me
But only his disapproval.
He has a debt to me too
Although I have long since ceased asking him to come across;
He does not know how and so I do without it.
But in this impersonal world of business
He can be communicated with:
With absolute assurance of being paid
The boss writes “Send me my money”
And my father sends it.

Edward Field---