The Absence of a Father

A poem based on true events... Father’s be active in your children’s life because your mistakes are not their problem, be aware of those eyes and ears that your example always follow, because if love you fail to show, your child’s heart will grow up hollow, and if he chooses to speak up one day, I’m sure your words he’ll make you swallow, and the later the “I love you’s” come, the more he’ll hate being your son, the more it takes to be called father. And that’s the way the story starts if from outside you do follow… Every day he rides the bus with mom and this new “uncle”, on the way he goes to school, not knowing that his teen mom struggles, but he takes up his own seat, right up front sits on his knees, as out the window he does peak, and every so often he does speak, shouting, “Mommy the car, the truck, the street!” He points again and then he screams, “Mommy the bike, the bird, the leaves!” Yes everything amazes him, the whole world it almost seems, the whole world EXCEPT one thing. This stranger who walks on the bus, and mom’s not too happy to see, “Don’t you see your son?” she says, then he kisses the boy on the cheek. He says “Hey son” then looks at the mother, “I’ll stop by to see him next week”. And on he goes, a day like any other, and in the back he finds a seat. The boy keeps looking out the window, points outside and once again screams, “Mommy look, the sky, the grass, Mommy look a giant tree!” And on goes the routine, and on goes the routine, and tomorrow when the stranger comes, “Don’t touch me!” is what the boy will scream.