A Picture of My Father.

A Picture of My Father

   As role model I chose a father
   Who was not physically present;
   I remember the last night we shared
   The same space in my grandfather's house.
   He was an aspiring musician
   That married a sweet, simple Georgia girl
   Who searched only for love and security.
   The last time I ever saw him she
   Sat on the staircase and bled.
   You're just like your father they said
   So often I came to believe
   That he and I were alike
   As two peas in a perilous pod.
   My name came from one of his uncles,
   My love for the blues from him.
   All I knew of the man was whispers
   Concerning his aberrant actions.
   They would always lower their voices
   In case they might hurt the boy's feelings
   By besmirching the unformed memory
   Of a man who wasn't there.
   I learned he was genius and madman,
   Both brilliant and bizarre,
   By being still in corners
   To hear legendary stories when
   They thought I wasn't listening.
   I became an aspiring scion
   To eccentricity.
   They concealed his photographs
   As if, like that mythical mirror,
   My viewing of his image
   Might somehow steal my soul;
   And I never saw a picture
   Of my father until I attained
   The sensational age of nineteen
   When I had already come to be
   The man I thought he'd been.

Walter Blackwell, Sr., lives in Jamestown, NY. This is his first published poem.