What do you say to the fatherless ones
On Fathers Day?
Do you look them in their long-lost eyes
And congratulate them on
Finding their own compass
With no
true north?
Or do you assume we are just like you,
Guided and loved with someone
sturdy to lean on?
I stayed silent for many moons
On Fathers Day,
Taking cover from the
TRUTH BOMB
That I will never be
anyone’s
princess.
There were no fishing trips or baseball games,
No pep talks or life advice,
Or whatever it is that
fathers do.
There will be no father-daughter dance
On my wedding day,
No hero to cheer me on as I
Morph and mold into my womanhood
throughout life,
And no one to model
How a man should treat me.
When you realize you
Come from a sperm donor
Who departed deliberately
Or through death-
Whether he was too young,
too violent,
Or otherwise
defective,
The Children of the lost Patriarchy
Grow a spine with branches
Reaching for the heavens for guidance
found elsewhere.
With weathered bones before we knew
We were broken,
And trust issues for
miles
To track the distance we have conquered
Despite no ground
below us,
We are camouflaged to culture with all our might,
And we… are…
everywhere!
I may never know a father’s love
But instead I have found
The Sky,
The Sacred,
And the occasional surrogate parent
Who walks across my windshield
At the crossroads of my life,
All who teach me more
In their brief passing
Than a lifetime of resentment
ever could.
To all my fellow bastard babies
In hiding,
Let’s bury our shame in the
open pasture.
There is no carbon copy
For what we’re missing out on
today (and every other day),
But Father energy… is…
everywhere!
Elusive, He is not confined
To just one man
But instead He lives in
The fire of our
inner strength,
In our fledgling confidence
As we stand up after each of
life’s assaults.
He is the vertical rise
Of the trees and
the shining sun
That shows up somehow
every day
when everything else
fails us.
This Elemental Father
Is all we’ve ever known,
And that is something
to celebrate.
So to all my sky-bound siblings,
Happy Fathers Day.
