The old priest Peter Gilligan
Was weary night and day
For half his flock were in their beds
Or under green sods lay.
Once, while he nodded in a chair
At the moth-hour of the eve
Another poor man sent for him,
And he began to grieve.
......
The Stranger within my gate,
He may be true or kind,
But he does not talk my talk--
I cannot feel his mind.
I see the face and the eyes and the mouth,
But not the soul behind.
The men of my own stock,
They may do ill or well,
But they tell the lies I am wanted to,
......
And when, in the city in which I love you,
even my most excellent song goes unanswered,
andI mount the scabbed streets,
the long shouts of avenues,
and tunnel sunken night in search of you...
That I negotiate fog, bituminous
rain rining like teeth into the beggar's tin,
or two men jackaling a third in some alley
weirdly lit by a couch on fire, that I
......
Some are teethed on a silver spoon,
With the stars strung for a rattle;
I cut my teeth as the black racoon--
For implements of battle.
Some are swaddled in silk and down,
And heralded by a star;
They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown
On a night that was black as tar.
For some, godfather and goddame
The opulent fairies be;
......
"You are old, father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head --
Do you think, at your age, it is right?
"In my youth," father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."
......
Before the dawn of time’s first breath,
Before the light of morning’s crest,
There was a Presence, pure and grand,
Who shaped the stars with His own hand.
He did not begin where beginnings unfold,
Nor fit within the bounds of old,
For He, the Prime Mover, the Uncaused Cause,
Initiated all with divine laws.
......
Few words I pen, for today is your day,
A celebration of you, in every way.
Thrilled and happy, my heart does sing,
For your life has been a blessing in everything.
A father you are, steadfast and true,
A husband so loving, through and through.
A godly man, with wisdom to share,
A parent so devoted, beyond compare.
......
I was there when they found him
Alive, barely inching across the concrete
he needed to go
Yes
He needed to go.
He needed a fact functioning friend
To dismiss, allieve,
Align with the lust for damnation.
To damn your dearest creation
However
......
Today my father walked away from me
I was 8 years old again
and all I could do was cry
as i grieved the love i never had
and yearned for the care he never gave me
You begged me not to confess, to lie about my quiddity,
for it pierces through your skin to hear my certitude and witness my color.
So, I listened and deceived you, as well as myself.
I did it for as long as air merged out of my body.
Still and all, the time arrived where I exhausted my soul.
You noticed but stayed blind.
That's the extent of the hatred you garnered to the man I embellished.
So I apologize, for I am what you loathe, father.