A Poet to His Father

Photo: I and Daddy, on August 10, 2003, during my déspedida at our home in San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines

A Poet to His Father

I tried so hard to understand
Why did it have to be us?

Your gift that year was a broken home
Gone in our lives then you were suddenly

I remember the tales you used to tell
There in my crib I would listen so well

An ode of forgiveness now gently plays
From me and them and her to you

Out of sadness and gloom into brightness and heaven
For so many years, for your return I'd yearned

Wounds, healed; scars, gone; a fresh new start
An unbroken chord on the guitar is set to be strummed
A brighter chapter in our lives has long begun
Pains and tears are now once upon...

— Written sometime in 1988
Rehashed on Thursday, January 20, 2005; Surrey, British Columbia
While listening to "Evade the Pain" by Budapest
(Too Blind to Hear; 2002, Easy Street)