- marckaye91
This is love, yo (a Poem for my kids – but not yet)

I recently posted this to twitter and reposting it in an easier-to-read format.
I wrote this about being a dad to two teenagers. Maybe you’ll recognize something familiar.
This is love, yo
Me on the chair
Reading a book
With you at the water’s edge
It’s ok
Pretend
I am a stranger
Yes, you may be too old for this
Me, too
But this is how it has to be for now
One and three quarters eyes on the page
A quarter on the base of your feet
The only thing I can see in the bottom periphery
As I try to maintain attention
On the biography I am reading
Because this is love, yo
And certain to the touch
Is the odd teenage reaction
Of bending your neck so I may receive the back of your head
Sweaty, matted hair
As a surrogate hug to say good night
I will continue to comment
“Is that all I get? Because this is love, yo
Encapsulated by a love that is beyond romance
As if it existed before you were born
Before I was born
When the universe was born
Streaming through our bloodstreams
Like quarks and stardust
Crossing paths again
For the first time
In 7 billion years
Because this is love, yo
That maybe only a parent can understand
Though understanding is a falsehood
Does an addict understand the pull of the drug?
Does a mother goose understand the urge to attack an innocent runner
Passing by knowing that
Time is finite?
This is love, yo
And when I pull up that phone for a photo
For the thousandth time
I know the rolling eyes
And guttural objections
Are only a way of expressing what is a disturbance in your day
And painstakingly
Here you are
Because I had to only endure a slight glance at a camera with a flash
That my mom never adjusted as I grew taller
For a handful of photos that all ended at my bottom lip
And now I can’t help but chronicle every glimpse in passing
Though a smile from you in just one of them
May cut down on my need
This is love, yo
And when the trying turns to hope
And the talking turns to prayer
And the seeing turns to memory
All we have is what we had
And all we had is what we were
To each other
Me to you
You to me
Us to each other
Because this is love, yo
#parenting #moms #lettinggo #holdingon #TEENS #dads #raisingkids #guardians #teenagers #love #kids #mothers #fathers