The sound of my father
pissing from great height
at the dead center
of the toilet bowl
without concern for
sleeping children,
the assertion
of his right to be out late
restated each night
with copious volumes
of urine
(mostly spent beer),
was his magnificent act,
careless, brazen,
and without heed of my
mother’s plea for quiet.
She’d whisper at him
furiously, but I
would only fall
into a deeper sleep,
taking as compliment
his coming home to piss.
The Sound of My Father
Samuel Less
Samuel Less studied poetry in the 1970s at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He has published poems and stories in numerous literary publications, most recently in The Worcester Review and Main Street Rag. He was awarded the Academy of American Poets prize at Syracuse University.