On This Father's Day Poem by Leonard Dabydeen

How exalted is your name
that I feel so proud
more than a country-side peacock
to pen it on the dotted line?
I, too, want to have siblings
scroll their insignia like a notary public;
and to feel the enormity
of this uncanny responsibility.
Yet, sometimes I feel puzzled
like a painting of Rembrandt
embracing a wall
on a subway station,
or a splash of color by Picasso,
to look the stub of an affidavit
with bare naked eyes
and to see the titled name
blunted like a barbeque brush
raking the charged grill
of my sacrificed flesh.
Flesh and blood cannot hide
not even blotted out
like a dry- erase on a white board.
And so if by civil procedure
you allow yourself
to act in faith and trust.
then let God be with you
on this Father’s Day.