when he back comes home
drunk and smelling of
old lipstick and cheap lager
he'll spend an hour in closed doors
to return back into shape

for the next problems he'll cause
and the next problems that'll arrive
spontaneously
from dry diapers
and stinky landlords
and old lipstick
and cheap lager

you've met them before
driving their money
working in lobster traps
acting like stones in rivers

tired men who are just as confused
as the next ***** pigeon

cursed to live their life
hoping that family is truth
and penultimate;
some will be hated, and will act badly
some will be hated, and become ghosts

some will be hated, and will sell their car
or build another house
or make you a steak dinner
or a dog shed

and some will be loved,
and perchance will do the same above,

but all of it
love them or hate them
is for you
his truth
his penultimate

the pearls of his life
that shook his fate
in that day in the hospital

they are not free from us
and the world
but they will try
and fail
and succeed in the end
raising us

your father loves you,
somehow.