Dear Daddy

To My Father...May God Forgive Him of His Sins & Grant Him to Paradise


Dear Daddy,

I haven't seen you since I was five.
Even though you were in & out of our lives.
So much that I want to ask you,
so much that I need to say.
So much that has to be learned,
and its never too late.

First off, I'm doing fine.
Yeah, life throws a few lemons from time to time.
Everyday there's a new challenge,
and by the grace of God we've gotten by.
After you left it got really hard.
Sometimes we had nothing to eat,
no place to live at all.
How come you didn't write,
visit...hell,
how come you didn't call?

You didn't think that we needed you then?

Dear Daddy,

I love you and missed you so much.
I wish we could sit back & reminisce.
There's so much that has happened,
there's so much that you have missed...

My 1st graduation,
1st altercation,
my very 1st job.
How I have grown so much,
and you missed it all.

Dear Daddy,

There's so much I wanted to share.
My dreams of becoming an artist...
the first picture I ever did.

I wanted to be like you,
and you missed all of it.
But, I know you never forgot about me.
You loved us so much,
I know you did.
Which is why you didn't come around the way you did.
You felt unacceptable...
unappreciated.

It's because you couldn't look your family in the eye & think we would not see you as being a man.
Instead, you said nothin'.
You just left....

Dear Daddy,
So many years and so many tears have passed and I held it all in.
So much hate,
so much anger,
so much aggression.
But, right now it isn't even worth it.
Because you're in my life now,
and that's where we'll begin.

Author's Comments:
"My father wasn't around when I was coming up. He didn't show back up in my life until I was 18. I didn't appreciate him being there, I was too hurt by the past. So, I did not treat my father nicely. He died about 2 years later, alone. It hurt b/c he died thinking that I didn't love him. And I truly did. I was just too focused on the past and what was missed instead of appreciating that he was in my life now. And forgiving him for what happened back then. I was always taught that you are supposed to forgive. Too bad I couldn't. Now he's gone, and I'll never know how close we could've been. I just want to say to anyone and everyone...cherish the people in your life despite what they have done in the past. No one is perfect. If God can forgive, why can't we? Appreciate them, love them, let them know someone cares. Before you end up like me, beating yourself up b/c you didn't get the chance to say "I LOVE YOU". Thank you for reading my poem :)!"