Father’s Day

I did not know my father
Just a couple of pictures
Where curly hair and glasses
Stare into the camera
Next to him my mother holds me
Before she threw him out
After he threatened to hit me
In an effort to begin his career
As the abused son of a drunk
Much later his new wife
Had a son whose
Existential paranoia
Did not prevent him from
Positing the “old man’s” defense
After I got in contact with his father
Who had come east from Michigan
On his motorcycle to see a dying man
He had not spoken to in fifty years
In a New Bedford hospital
I chose not to visit Michigan
Since I had long ago
Become my very own father