Less than One

I

I am my father’s son

I try to be a man’s man

Tough when I can

Provide for my family

I don’t turn and run

I stay

He left

Whatever the reason, the excuse

He started afresh somewhere else with someone else

With other people

But not with me

How can I be my father’s son?

II

I am my mother’s son

I try to be an empathetic man

As gentle as I can

I confuse anger and love

But I will not back down

I stay

She left

She took another

A lover

She had taken him long before now

It is why my father left it is said

It was the process of my mother leaving

In stages

Cutting the maternal bonds

That weighed and weighs like rusty anchors dragging

She brought that lover home

He slept in my father’s bed

He slept in my father’s room

He slept in my father’s house

But he was not father to anyone

He with my mother left

How can I be my mother’s son

.

.

.

III

I am my father’s son

I am my mother’s son

They told me they loved me, they told me they didn’t like me

A child should not be divided like that

Dislike will scar the man

Make the man

Negate the man

I am the son

And I have come home

Less than one.