Poem About My Father Featuring Synecdoche

 

synecdoche - noun - figure of speech in which a part represents the whole.

Plaid Jacket

My father was a pattern

of horizontal and vertical,

staid black, pure white – 

and ruby red

plaid:

that plaid jacket.

Tartan of royal Scots,

it was not

although the Stewart Clan

might recall the kilts

they once wore

if they saw it 

hanging

on that clearance rack

in Bamberger’s.

That plaid jacket

could cut the rug

and jitterbug

better than Benny G

could play clarinet.

That plaid jacket

baptized newborn babes,

sat with joy at

the helm of holiday tables,

poised before blinking lights

of evergreen bliss,

inhaled the dry taste of 

Perrier-Jouet

on most New Year’s Eves.

That plaid jacket

would not miss the vows

of love,

the kiss of which would 

linger in the air like pollen

when spring folded into summer,

summer into autumn,

autumn into winter.

That plaid jacket

fell into its final 

resting place

in a comfortable casket 

on Christmas Eve.

#poem, #in memory, #poetry about love, #love poem, #poetry community, #new poetry, #new poem, #synecdoche