i don’t know how to make the pain of my father’s abandonment stop hurting
this is a wound covered by a flimsy scab prone to cracking and seeping through the dressings
i have so many questions and no answers all this speculation years of blaming myself for his not knowing how to not wanting to be a father be MY father
and i was just a kid telling my classmates that i didn’t even have a father because he lived states away while that void grew bigger and darker inside me
and it has been nearly three years since the last time i saw my father even though we live in the same ******* town
but this is not the first time that contact have been lost it just never started again since i stopped reaching out and finally put myself first where my father is involved
just because you’re someone’s father doesn’t mean you’re a dad and i can’t remember when i stopped seeing his face when i thought of having a dad but it’s been too **** long
and it feels strange to even call him my father but that’s about as informal as i can get without calling him by his first name ya know?
and maybe i’m just searching for closure an apology that will never come that reassurance that i wasn’t a bad kid the promise that it’s not my fault
and maybe if those things are said with enough conviction by the right person at the right time i’ll believe them
i just want this to stop hunched over at my desk crying until my lungs hurt wondering what i did wrong i was just a kid
i was just a kid and i needed a father i needed a dad
but i won’t force him to be my father to be in my life because he clearly doesn’t want to doesn’t know how to
and all i want right now is to find a way for the wound that this prolonged cycle of abandonment left to stop bleeding through my shirts
i want to stop seeing his face whenever i look in the mirror i want to stop asking myself why i want to stop blaming myself because i was just a kid