Death Has Some Questions for Dad

Abstract

Death Has Some Questions for Dad Cathleen Calbert (bio) If a tree falls in the forest, is it my fault? Can there ever be recompense for loss? Will you explain the beauty of the peacock? The worm-like joey? Duck-billed platypus? Why the legs of baby horses don't fit within the birth canal? Who came up with this? Did the one who made the tiger also make the tiger's demise? Why is there sadness after naps? Postcoital blues? Postpartum blues? Why did Missy the Guinea Pig eat her babies? Are children bad or good? Do angels even want to dance on the heads of pins? Why does it feel great to crack one's bones? Why does prayer bring a six-year-old back to life (the blue girl turns pink when pulled from the pond) yet not save her eight-year-old sister? Are all blessings mixed? Must happiness always be in the past tense? Should we celebrate or condemn the ingenuity of handcrafted spider-goats? What will they come up with next? Should one pity the watchfulness of the meerkat? Or admire it? Is ignorance bliss or knowledge power? Or is this another "false binary"? Is altruism simply expensive narcissism? Why would one lie down in a bed one has made? Would you get fleas if the dogs you lay with didn't have fleas? Why do humans foul their nests when even wolf cubs refuse to do so? When they already know the ending, why are people afraid? Is heaven the same as eternity? Why would eternity be in love with the productions of time? Why is nothing new under the sun when mutability holds sway over all? Must our truths be paradoxical? Is solipsism avoidable in therapy? If the unexamined life isn't worth living, why are the examined ones so painful? Must pain sleep with pleasure? What was the Big Bang like? When shall I take my turn? Am I the end or the beginning? Why have you abandoned me? [End Page 126] Cathleen Calbert cathleen calbert's writing has appeared in many publications, including The Paris Review, Poetry, and The Southern Review. She is the author of four books of poems: Lessons in Space, Bad Judgment, Sleeping with a Famous Poet, and The Afflicted Girls. Her awards include a Pushcart Prize, the Sheila Motton Book Prize, and the Mary Tucker Thorp Professorship at Rhode Island College. Copyright © 2023 Cathleen Calbert