我哥哥打电话，导致我担心，
部分因为我不喜欢打电话
而且大多数是因为他抱怨
他如何找不到工作，他的卡车
如果发动不起来，他妻子的车
如何需要一台新变速器。他妻子
是怎样的一个泼妇，我想要说
不要谈论那样的问题。
不要谈论你妻子，虽然我知道
她可能是一个讨厌的女人，有时候，
但谁又不是呢？
正如他所做的，那更成问题
如果他问我，他不该那样说，而且
不能在孩子们面前做，我想说。给单身阿姨们
婚姻建议，养育孩子的建议更容易。
而且我听见幕后我侄子叫“爸爸”
我的哥哥回答，“现在不行，儿子，”
我记起我和哥哥如何
守候高速路上我父亲的绿色福特车--
看着一辆又一辆汽车，寻思着
他什么时候出现，如果他会来的话。
这就是为何我能听出我侄子的不安的原因--
爸爸，爸爸的不停地催促爸爸--知道
那意味着不要离开。并且明白
我哥哥也听见了。
My brother calls, which causes me anxiety,
partly because I don’t like phone ca1ls,
but mostly because he grumbles
about how he can’t find a job, how his truck
won’t start, how his wife’s car needs
a new transmission. About how his wife
is a bitch, and I want to say, Don’t talk like that.
Not about your wife, although I know
she can be a bitch, at times, but who isn’t?
At times. Although she takes too many pills,
as he does, which is more of a problem
if he asks me, which he doesn’t. But not in front
of the kids, I want to say. Easy for single aunts
to give marital advice, child-rearing advice.
But I hear my nephew in the background say, “Dad,”
and my brother answer, “Not now, son.”
And I remember how my brother and I watched
the highway for our father’s green Ford—
watched car after car after car, wondering
when he would come, if he would come.
This is why I can hear my nephew’s anxiety—
the nagging Dad after Dad after Dad—and know
it means Don’t leave. And know that my brother
hears it too.
