The day my father threatened to kill me—

mother forbade me to see him.
When I was twelve, I passed the exam

everyone expected I’d have failed.
Ecstatic, I found father in Negril.

I hadn’t seen him in years. He took me

to his neighbours and called me son.
In Sav–la–Mar, he bought textbooks

and uniforms, crammed receipts into my pocket,
said he has never spent as much

on any of his children.
Some nights I dream of Sav—

of father drawing deadlines
on the Styrofoam box:
the year he expected me to repay;

the consequence if I did not.