Father, Daughter

Is a child meant
to carry her father’s legacy?
The discomfort of his skin
rubbing against her dreams
till she is fallen, raw,
paralyzed and unable to flourish?

Is a daughter meant
to carry the burden
of her father’s grief?
His powerlessness hers?
His fate hers to shatter?

I wear my father’s hurt
like a personal affront
am armed to go to battle

searching for the words
that will set us both free

He lying in his grave
me, awake and able.

(Photo collage my own)

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VJ

Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.

39 thoughts on “Father, Daughter”

  8. Fathers and daughters, that’s a tricky relationship. My dad really only had brothers and did not know how to relate to little girls, and he had two daughters. He did his best. I stumbled through. We did share a love for words and stories. In fact, I think he gave me that gift. I hope you can find the words to set you both free, VJ.

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  19. Like it or don’t, our parents, pass what they received in their childhoods down to us, without realizing that their so-called, “love” is doing more harm than, good, and, because we’d been hurt ourselves, it’s, more than likely, we will also, damage our own young, as we’d been, damaged by our own, parents, unless, we are, EXTREMELY, self-aware of what had happened in our childhoods, meaning that, we don’t, BLOCK it out, but, that’s not the case, as, humans, always, TRY to, avoid, re-experiencing the pains we experienced, and, if we don’t acknowledge we’d been, abused by the two people who WERE, supposed to, love us, how can we be aware enough, consciously, to, NOT pass it down to the next, generation? So, the abuse keeps on getting passed down the line, maybe, just not, in the same, form, but, the vicious cycle will, keep on, rolling.

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