LAMENT FOR MY FATHER

I search my father’s eyes for recognition of being

I look beyond his surface for faith

to survive this world made not

For him…..or me;

I cry for his struggles, his fight for life.

He is dying inside the nothingness of his past

The hopelessness of his future

Buried within a high.

Mentally, I touch his scarred arms

Frantically seeking answers to my own

Reflections of rocks, glass bowls,

Blasts on the pipe.

I need to know the why of his comfort in

Active addiction….his attraction to

the milky, white liquid melting his life away.

Doesn’t he know I love him as I have loved no other man?

Doesn’t he know that if he dies without finding substance in his life, I will definitely know that: there will always be systematic neglect of our men. It will always be in my mind that: there is no escaping the agony of being a Black man in America!