For My Father

Dad Louis Mason - 1980

© 2013 Joyce Mason/ All Rights Reserved

He was surrounded by women

but learned to love, not fear them,
despite his jokes to the contrary.

He cried and did dishes and knew
that none of us were born stupid
for being born female.

He was stubborn and sentimental

and hard-working

and had this knack for making me laugh

every time the sky fell down

(or me on another bleeding knee).

He had faith in my dreams
and was always smart enough to realize
he couldn’t figure me out
(neither could I)
but he was so much a part of me
you could see me in the morning mirror shaving.

He was half of love
of parents
of every foundation
that’s held me up.

He was, when I was at his knee,
and is, now that I’m old enough
to be my own person,
the greatest father,

man and hero
any daughter
could have ever found.

So when you ask me about love
and why it’s been so long in coming
(and sometimes so short in staying)

realize
that when it comes to men
my dad is a tough act to follow.

~~~

Photo Credit: Family photo album

Postscript: I first wrote this poem in the 1970s.  Just before my dad died in early 1997, I reunited with my childhood sweetheart and married him the next year. I was so glad Dad got to see me happy with Tim before he passed. It was only years later that I realized, in the end, I married someone remarkably like my father.

From my unpublished poetry book, Thick Water: Poems on Bonds of the Heart.

Happy Father's Dad to All and to the nurturing Dad inside everyone, male or female.