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Daddy won’t be coming home tonight

Leo Long 1986 (Durban)

The steam that rises from the shell
Mists up the scope lens
A steady hand etches a heart
Through which the other bleeds

A tattered pass absorbs the flood
Inches from the silent hand
That reached beneath his thread bare coat
A white flag not received

The towel-head becomes another scratch
A tally of the toll
A line on the barrel of a hired gun
No space for numbers here

A dog-eared girl
Watermarked in red
Stares up from the inner cover of the pass…
… daddy won’t be coming home tonight
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Submitted by leol.15970 on May 12, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
5

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 479
Words 92
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Full analysis for Daddy won’t be coming home tonight »

Leo Long

Leo Long is a part-time poet, you can view my professional profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-long-%F0%9F%8C%8D-%E2%99%BB%EF%B8%8F%F0%9F%8C%B2-3268433b/ more…

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    "Daddy won’t be coming home tonight" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/99763/daddy-won’t-be-coming-home-tonight>.

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