Letter To My Dad Poem by Adegbenro Adekunle

I once met a couple
In the midst of my trouble
They looked too old
They looked too bold

I was just a little boy
A little bigger than a toy
It was an award giving day
And I needless say
The school wanted to reward us before the holiday

I had won the best prize in Social Studies
A brilliant reward
For a brilliant effort on my studies
A brilliant reward
For not being wayward

I swung swiftly into celebration
Not listening to other roll calls
I popped my bottled beverage in elation
Not minding that I stained people's clothes with my beverage waterfalls

I saw a hairy hand, hanging in the addled air
It was like the thick hungry hand of the devil
It was meanly moving, racing closer, aiming to impair
It grievously grabbed my right wrist, while I waited for the evil

We looked eyeball to eyeball
Like ferocious opponents set for a deciding game of volleyball
I stood in the air dressed in red and black
While he stood straight beside the flowers dressed in white, a stained white
Then a woman came and kissed his neck from behind, I guessed she was in the dark
She was equally dressed in white
Watching as I tried to free myself with a brutal bite

He called me a terrifying tyke
I called him a horrifying hawk
He said I was as tiny as a needle
I said I would scratch his face like a fiddle

I stepped on their toes
No! They stepped on my toes
They became my foes
And I was soon to see the woes

We headed for my home
While he threatened to drop a note for my dad as big as a tome
Then he brought out a pen and a piece of paper adeptly
And wrote seemingly illegibly

He dropped the note in the mailbox near the gate
As I watched him leave with his wife
And that was the end and beginning of the rife
Then I waited for the date
With every passing day, hoping my dad would see the note late

On the 'dee-day'
On the evening of the un-awaited date
The day I had a feeling I was going astray
I saw my dad dusting a note
With his teary tone, I knew I was no longer his favorite dote
In anger, he opened and read the Letter
And I knew it must be bountifully bitter

*******
'To the father of the boy that called me devil
I am the devil that does no evil
Your Son Dave is the angel that stains other people's white garment
He is meant to be great
He was every parent's dream
And I had thought on our first meeting, I would give him a gift of ice cream
He was the yardstick for other students in his class
And my daughter, Christie looked up to him, as though he was the greener grass

He won so many prizes
But forgot that success comes in different sizes
He forgot that with every passage
There is always a fresh challenge

He forgot that life is a race
And only the perseverant gets the ace
You are only done
When you are gone
If you stop running
You'll stop winning
He went sleeping
While Christie went working
Christie believes that the roof does not rest, when the rain is still ranting
She strived to beat the rest, not only in studying but in living

Your Son, Dave, relied on his past achievement
While Christie, my daughter worked so hard to beat his accomplishment
Oh! Dave won a prize
But Christie won all but one, a fulfilment of her dream termed 'Actualize'

From the Man and his wife dressed in white
From Mr. and Mrs. Made'
****

Written by Adekunle Adegbenro (Saturday, April 18,2009)