“These hands are my father’s hands but smaller”
—Why?, “These Hands”
“My father gave me these hands, fingers
inch-wide and muscular like his”
—Richard Blanco, “My Father, My Hands”
“These hands are my father’s hands these eyes
Excessively veined his eyes”
—Charles Wright, “Congenital”
CRYING
He is ashamed
For others to
See his stony face
Crumble.
But crumble is
What will be –
Tears of lifelong
Amnesty.
Only figures of
Fatherly stature can
Claim witness to such
Calamity.
Born one after the other in
Imperfect sequence.
These girls exist as
Reminders of a man’s
Failure.
A man is not a man
Until his wife
Bears him a son.
That is the way
Of the father.
These daughters filled
With daddy’s disappointment
Carry resentment for
Each other: The girl who
Could have been a brother.
All our poor girls – now women –
Will toil away, leaving
More daughters behind,
Their husbands disappointed
With no successful successors.
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