Daddy I Forgot You Poem by ian muhando

oh I forgot you,
‎I can't remember your face,
‎I can't remember your laughter,
‎I can't remember your touch,
‎
‎The face I see in my mind,
‎The one I see when I close my eyes,
‎is the picture they showed me of you,
‎
‎The thought of you,
‎lying there,
‎sickly and helpless,
‎avoiding eye contact,
‎your frail hands trying to hold me,
‎yet miserably failing,
‎'daddy nitakuwa sawa...'
‎'nkipona ntakupeleka Kisumu'
‎
‎I still can't see your face,
‎no matter how hard I try,
‎not that I try that hard anymore,
‎I can see your thin frail frame,
‎I can see the white vest,
‎I can see your sweaty chest,
‎but your face evades me,
‎
‎I can remember people milling around the house,
‎so many family around,
‎I am not sure what the mood was then,
‎I don't remember what mama felt then,
‎
‎Oh the next time I saw you,
‎lying cold in that bed,
‎the putrid smell, the one I now call the smell of death,
‎hanging around,
‎you didn't look like yourself,
‎yet I don't remember how that looked like,
‎i should have known,
‎that the last time I saw you would be my last,
‎
‎Daddy I forgot you.