hlih
iFather for Justice
by Edna de Dannan

Your Kids?

Our Kids!

Orchids

for the wreath
to mark the demise of the family bond the state has let you squander

Lost time, gone for good , childhood a passing phase -milestones once met
are greeted , discarded , sometimes logged like a lock of hair
but I wasn't there -
you wouldn't let me
and they said
that's fine with us.

And you continue to bear the daily grind

But Hello? Remember me? that Daddy guy -
you know
that other pair of once considered useful hands?

the ties that once bound us now a spiky pike to elbow me to the ditch.

when love flew out the window,you called in the bigwigs who tried to tell me
where to sit , when to speak, where I fit
in the new regime,
how to dance the dance,
the miserly dance
to a mean spirited discordant tune.

Humiliation is not a nice emotion but I feel it daily
and I pay my taxes dutifully to support this kind of lunacy.

Anyway,

while many drowned their sorrows , others, the old guard beavered quietly
- Hock and wily Catt, Whiston and the pedant Pelling.

Then the new guard raised the stakes , climbed high towers ,
pranged P.M.s with purple powdered flour power

and the ears began to prick,

well it sells papers doesn't it?

So what do we want ?
WE WANT JUSTICE

when do we want it?
YESTERDAY

but yesterday is gone.

So when are they going to shut up?
WHEN THE FINAL CONCLUSION IS A PRESUMPTION OF INCLUSION
then and only then will a new song be sung.

the "didn't I used t be your daddy,
itchy,
ill fitting ,
surplus to requirement
living daddy death shrouds" can be taken off ,
folded up and stored away
or woven into a tapestry
a reminder of the history of this sorrowful state sanctioned travesty.

And if you don't believe what I've just said ,
eaves drop as you shop,
as you drink
or go about your business.

Take a trip to The Strand Monday to Friday
where the rocky horror family break up show
is performing daily
you can't get tickets for love or money - the sign "in camera" hangs on a
firmly
shut
door.

but you'll hear the wailing in the court corridors ,
the tea rooms ,
bar rooms,
living rooms ,
bedrooms,
psychiatric units,
homes for the bewildered,
homes for the homeless-
lost lives,
wasted lives -
numb-
barely there at all lives -
devastation,
underachievement ,
compensatory over achievement
, weeping at the side of graves
and the debilitating trudge through life
of the low level depressive
former father
ex dad.

the family break up business is big business -
there are those who want ,
no need, to see it thrive,
as if their life
style depended on it.

So,
let's call a halt to this policy of partial or full on daddyectomies,
a policy delivered to your door ,
my door,
male female,
aunty uncle,
cousins, friends
nieces and nephews ,
granny and grandads doors.

doors of the rich
and the doors of the poor,
and the doors of the ones,
your funds
are paying for
no longer able to love their once loved love ones anymore.

To them all
I light this candle.