from: The Father of My Country - Diane Wakoski

my father was not in the telephone book
in my city;
my father was not sleeping with my mother
at home;
my father did not care if I studied the
piano;
my father did not care what I
did;
and I thought my father was handsome and I loved him and I wondered
whyhe left me alone so much
so many years
in fact, but
my father
made me what I am
a lonely woman
without purpose, just as I was
a lonely child
without a father. I walked with words, words, words, and names,
names. Father was not
one of my words.
Father was not
one of my names.