Bite it back,
Swallow hard,
And choke it down;
‘Cause if I let it
Spew back out,
You’ll twist it ‘round
‘Till the meaning’s gone,
Then shoot me down
With your misconception.
So instead,
Daddy dearest,
You’ll have to die
Never knowing why—
The real reason why—
I can no longer say,
“I love you.”

Author's Note: My dad likes to comment that he's going to die soon (he just turned fifty, so he thinks he's going to die any day now), so we had better clear the enmity between us. Unfortunately, I can't say anything to him because, as soon as I do, he seems to mutate it and pick out the meaning that he wants to take from it, and then suddenly he'll go on a rant about how what I said is so disrespectful, and that this is why we can't reconcile, and blah blah blah. So I've given up. And I wrote this incredibly crappy poem to vent about it. It's my first poem that I've managed to keep under a page in length, lol. But regardless of how crappy it is, I need you to please review and let me know how I can get better at this poetry stuff, because I would love to be able to write it at least passably well. I know that the rhythm is off, but I'm still trying to figure out how to say what I want to say, while giving it the structure that is required of a poem. And yes, I know that freeverse or whatever you want to call it does not necessarily have to follow a structure, but something in me seems to demand it. So please let me know what you think... even though I think this author's note is longer than the poem itself. . Gomen!