April 2017
Perry S. Nicholas
perrynicholas53@aol.com​
I am an Associate Professor of English at Erie Community College North in Buffalo, N.Y.  I have 5 books, 4 chapbooks, and 1 CD of poetry. I am married to Maria Sebastian, a well-known singer/songwriter, and we perform our poetry and music together at many venues in the WNY area. For more information please visit my website: www.perrynicholas.com

​Father's Toast


In photographs, I touch your granite face,
To rub away those days you’d stumbled home, 
Straight VO in your hand, with little grace
You lifted a mock toast to set the tone

Of strength and towering presence of a birch.
I stare at you, then conjure black and blue, 
One small soldier on his silent march to church— 
The way a father teaches, I assumed. 

After long nights of roaming the district dark,
I used your branch to shield the blinding day
And carved a deeper sweetness in the bark,
Sought new mentors, cummings, Hemingway.

Here’s to you, who taught me how not to sing:
No more nada y pues nada—just everything.
©2017 Perry S. Nicholas
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