“Boys without Fathers” by Susan Hayden
This has always been
a “Quest” story:
Adventures, magical rewards,
the tests
Running for my life
and from my life
since I had feet
Running to meet
Men
who were once
boys without fathers
Boys without Fathers
They learned their way
around things,
not by choice
They’ve given voice
and reason
to my tiny little leaps
toward the Unknown
and I was (and still am)
prone,
susceptible
to their lack of guidance–
that moral (or immoral) code
invented
by being let loose
to draw conclusions
of their Own
A Father will reveal
a river’s hidden moves;
the groove in the magic angle,
twenty degrees to skip a stone
not leave a Boy
to bond with the Alone
and grow up overnight
with no instructions
A Father will show
How to build a fire
Pitch a tent
Give directions
Embellish all reflections
Fight with snowballs,
Fish through ice
He’ll be the one that says,
“Roll the dice,
it’s your turn”
Your Turn
This has always been
a “Quest” story
with its circuitous route,
its point and its shoot;
its natural disasters
Still running to the men
Who were once
Boys without Fathers
To seek from within them
what’s unwritten:
the secret to dreaming
the unmarked trail
the backroad home
the way to make peace with the Alone
The adventures, the magical rewards,
the tests
and a plea in their honor,
a simple request:
Please teach me
How to grow my own Boy,
the One without a Father
© 2010