Poems

We Want a Daddy Too

(For children without a father)

They have seen others

with their fathers

looked on with a longing

as ancient as the world

as a man, a father

hoists his son on his shoulder

watched at the beach

as a dad teaches his son to swim

She spied on her friends

being dropped off at school

and receiving a kiss on the cheek from their dad

and she placed her hand on her own cheek

feeling the hollowness like a toothache

She has never known a father

her mother said he left before she was two

her mouth longs to form the word

daddy or papa or father

He has never had a father

no man whose face he recognizes

his mother says:

why yu want what yu can’t have

mi nuh tek care of all yu need

But he yearns for a man

someone strong… someone reliable

someone to teach him to ride a bicycle

someone to kick a ball with him or even

shout jokingly at him

like he hears the man across the street

saying to his son,

Yu is not man yet yu know!

Your time soon come

as he hugs his son around the neck

and they play wrestle

He without a daddy without a father

having never met the man who fathered him

wonders what he has done to be so unlucky

His brow knits with desire and envy

at the boy across the street who

he sometimes just wants to thump

She whose father has walked away

looks with longing at men wondering

why she’s not good enough for

her father to love her…to come and

look for her even just once in a while

So on this day set aside for fathers

resentment swells in the boy

vexation perfumes the girl

and they silently pray

for even a-piece of a man

to love … to call daddy…

Happy Father’s Day

To all the men who are active in their children’s lives, and a plea to absent fathers.

Your daughters and sons need and deserve your presence. Someone to hold their hands when they cross the street, someone to sit at the dinner table and ask them how school was … just a daddy. Someone to hug them tight and let them feel safe, someone to tickle them, someone they can look up to. A man that says you are my son you are my daughter and I love you. Will you please be my daddy!

Opal Palmer Adisa

Doha with a wow!

Jamaican athletes come with Gayle force winds

Yellow hair and colour colour

Whether in the 4x4 mixed relay

Shelly or Tajay

Wi meck wi mark a Doha

Gayle hurricane himself to victory

With the tenth best jump of all time

When him leap to 8.46 in the long jump

And 8.69-

And lef di competition lame and blind

Shelly was not to be outdone

With Sunshine hair and rainbow colour

When the Mother of Zion

Scorched the track 10.71

To win the women’s 100 metre

Wi get a silver in the 4 x 4 mixed relay

And wi did feel mighty pleased

But even those whe no get no placing

In the top three

To yu wi send wi love and peace

Wi know yu doing yu best fi yu country

And working like a cow

Mi jus hear Dacres get a silver

So start di celebration now

Bolt wi miss yu, but wia persevere

Cause wia champion then and now

Now big up all the Athletes in Doha, Qatar

In fact, can they get a wow?!

Lisa Gaye Taylor