NOTES TO A LATE FATHER!

Dear father,

I know you maybe wondering—wondering because I am writing you this today and now;

For while you were alive you didn’t even know—a ‘Father’s Day’ ever existed! 

A day of celebrating fatherliness the world over.


No one celebrated it let alone doing it for you!

No one knew you deserved such love; 

Your world didn’t consider that worthwhile.

Your milieu never warranted such merriments—such remembering eluded you and others alike!


You came to a world merely as a bystander!

You were just like a football fan who only watched the game—one who watched in screams and desires and aspirations!

One who had no power to change things around.

If only you had such powers to change things around;

I am sure you would have made us greater people than you did!


Yet in your nothingness, you sacrificed your all!

Your all was never enough to help you accomplish much for us.

Your dreams for us were so huge—living realities were nothing but huddles!

In your littleness, you struggled to carve a path for us to follow—a never rosy path—a path in which meagreness was virtue!


You were not the best example of a father!

But we were helped by God to overcome—

even the things you lived and struggled with!

You struggled in life generally—

Yet you gave us a future you never imagined in your life.


You were never always there for us!

Yet we have grown to become what we are today, Deo volente!

You didn’t live the best life in yourself—

but you desired to see that in us all.

You had nothing, yet you gave us ALL!


You taught me hard-labour!

We use to dig one complete well to water-level within days!

For money—the reward for which I still expect our masters to pay.

They have refused to pay me even when you passed on to the great beyond!

They look at me sometimes in amazement—

greatly bamboozled since they still remember our story!

How they used to cheat us—employing us without payment.


Ah! What shall I say about you, Dad?

You must have seen your Mma Monica;

Our mother, your wife—the one you used to fight with!

After your passing in February 2013, she followed on in May 2019!

What a joy was it to know you made things right—before passing.

And that keeps making the days of my life.

It is the strength of your bloodline!


How I wish you were still here and now!

So I can show you some love—so I can take you to places in order to show you round!

How I wish Mom was here, too! 

Imagine the joy of having you around now.


Dad, today is FATHER’S DAY!

But you are not here.

Some fathers are still around alive!

But their people do not celebrate them, sadly—children, sons and daughters with relations inclusive!

They await the passing of you all so they can celebrate—celebrating the DEAD today more than the LIVING!


My pain is still the chance I didn’t get—to celebrate you while you were here!

Your passing came so quick and shocking.

You may recall you died while I was away serving Nigeria—a country that does not place any value on humans presently!

I wish I didn’t serve at all— I would have had the privilege of watching you pass!


Be that as it may,

Happy Fathers’ Day to you!


Zwandien Bobai

20 June 2021.

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