Daddy

Includes depictions of drug abuse, poverty, parental neglect.

Daddy

Daddy, I remember the clipped visit
Drunken walk wavering
Five dollars left to your name.

Daddy, I thought you had died
Only known by parable
Lips blue with chilled addiction.

Daddy, your Southern poverty
Was passed down to me
Swallowed in fractured halves.

Daddy, I hate you always
Bile mixing in with the words
Even as you drown in waste.

Daddy, your weary eyes
How you know they are mine
Taunting me in the filthy puddle.

Daddy, daddy, no longer.
The thought of you: Father.