And I Heard the Same You Once Heard

Dedicated to my son, Nathaniel)

Once I tried to soften the blow, to say
“It is not your fault I must leave, you know!”
In those moments a son needs his father and to play,
For certain these words were lost in the silent response
When you cried out, “Daddy! Daddy!” in the midst of the day.
I did come around, if you recall.
Perhaps never enough of me did you see.
Probably seemed there was between us a great wall.
Only two actions in my life have I deeply regretted.
Both having kept you from me.
But in your eighteenth year, you phoned
And I came in a flash.
It seemed that you were sincere
Perhaps it is true, you only wanted the cash.
Because of your subsequent silence my dear

Brings to remembrance that day I tried to soften the blow.
When I call out from the depth of my thoughts of you,
“Nathaniel! Nathaniel!” I know your pain of fatherlessness because
I hear the same you once heard in reply.
The silence that can only invoke me to cry.

_________________

This poem, renamed "Nathaniel", appears in the collection of poem in. <MANCHESTER AND BEYOND ?POEMS: POEMS FROM MANCHESTER> edited by Sutton, Stephen. (2020: AuthorHouse. UK)

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