I eat these
wild red raspberries
still warm from the sun
and smelling faintly of jewel weed
in memory of my father
tucking the napkin
under his chin and bending
over an ironstone bowl
of the bright drupelets
awash in cream
my father
with the sigh of a man
who has seen all and been redeemed
said time after time
as he lifted his spoon
men kill for this.
This poem is essentially a run-on sentence in which Kumin is remembering her father and the way he used to eat. Her appetite reminds her of her father, just as her home reminds her of her mother (in Where I Live). The final line "men kill for this" is an example of an envoi, and concludes the poem with a strange change in tone, from reminiscent of her father's life to a lighter more humorous tone.
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