DEAR DAD

DEAR DAD

DEAR DAD

I used to be in awe of you dad
When you took to the podium
And with your eloquence dazzle
millions into belief and conversion
How your single stride was a gallop
I used to boast, you know,
Beat myself on the chest
Tell them you were my dad.
Together we gathered as family sipping
in your dripping wisdom.

What happened dad?
You started running your mouth
With words corrosive to mother's womb.
She succumbed and then the exodus began
Now most of us are scattered in
lands unwelcoming and hostile
It was brother Joe who was first
Packed his bags in the night
We never saw him ever again
His friends say he was swallowed
by the crocs of the Limpopo.

I recently returned from Kuwait
From your billions you could not
Spare an air ticket to rescue me
I crawled back home an amputee
All limbs left in that strange place
Are you disgusted?
Are you ashamed of me or
the circumstance that chased me away?

Your nest breezes emptiness
There is a silence here
Can you hear it?
It sits thick on our tongues
Brewing a storm
We do not gather and clap for
your eloquence anymore.
Now just rhetoric bruising our ears.

Dad, its hard to call you that these days

You have wounded us, thrown us to the lions
Left us to fight while you watch arms folded
There is no bread in the house today, you say
We have not had bread for years dad
There is hungry laughter here
Like a tennis ball ricochets
and slams in between our hopeful
hands shrinking from exhaustion
The tears have aged and still
We have nothing to show

This house has turned into a stranger
It's eyes watch us with suspicion
Asking questions we have no answers for
Dad, this is supposed to be your day
We would have cooked up a storm
Invited our neighbours
There are walls too high
Building as we speak
Just for ceremony's sake
Here, take this bitterness
It is all we can serve you.