I never knew my dad
Oh I’m not saying I never knew of him
‘you’re going to turn out just like your dad’
my grandmother would admonish
every time I disappointed her in even a small way
‘your father should be here to deal with this’
my mother would spew when I got in trouble
‘she has her father’s eyes, ‘ my aunt would say
when she was feeling nostalgic
this man I never knew influenced every step of my life
most of it bad, people seldom said, wonderful,
you are just like your father, and so hearing
that I was bad like my dad eventually sunk in
and I became exactly what they prophesied
and I never got a chance to tell him thanks
or go to hell, he died while I was still learning
to be like him, but on father’s day I always
think to myself, thanks a lot, dad, for your
creativity cause that was the one thing I am
happy I got from my father, he was the artist
albeit a disreputable one, but it was from him
I got the urge to create, and that makes up for
A lot, although not for his never having been there
Some things nothing makes up for