Our Fathers
Our fathers
who left us,
abandoned us,
loved us,
wanted us,
hated us,
spanked us,
hugged us,
Our fathers
who loved our mothers,
beat our mothers
stayed out too late,
or came home too early,
who paid our bills,
and withdrew affection,
Our fathers
who were disappointed in us,
were proud of us,
who could not accept our love,
who couldn’t give any to us either,
Our fathers who went to war,
or stayed home,
Our fathers
who held us awkwardly when we were tiny,
held our hands when we first walked,
Who didn’t care,
who weren’t there,
with forgotten dreams,
who worked to early deaths,
who wanted our love, and couldn’t tell us,
whose daily bread sometimes nourished us,
Hallowed be thy names
alnc says
It appears that a tradition has been established which marks Father’s Day as an opportunity to dump on them. Here is just one more example. This never occurs on Mother’s Day, I guess, because all moms are great, right?
cmb57 says
I feel sorry for you, alnc. This must have touched a nerve. I feel the poet was expressing a varied view of fathers. Fathers in past generations were not always as available or accessible as mothers because of society’s structure.