Hey Dad

Hello

Dad

I’m talking to a stranger in my head

It’s been a while

Or maybe it’s been all my life instead

You were just a blank space

Not a face

Not a story in the frame

I lived around your absence

Like a room that never learned your name

You don’t even know my name

Don’t know the day that I was born

Don’t know the years you left me torn

You walked away

I stayed the same

I hope it keeps you wide awake

One day you’ll feel this quiet ache

You don’t even know my name

Do you ever

Stop and wonder who I came to be

Do you guess

If my eyes look anything like yours did at three

You hurt me by leaving

By never even trying to explain

I grew up with questions

That you never bothered to claim

You don’t even know my name

Don’t know my laugh

Don’t know my fears

Don’t know the count of all these years

You chose the distance

I took the blame

I hope it finds you in the dark

This empty space where we should start

You don’t even know my name

I’ve never seen your face

Don’t know your walk

Your voice

Your age

Just this hollow shape

Where a father’s supposed to stand on the page

Maybe someday you’ll turn around

And feel the weight of what you left

I hope the silence gets so loud

You hear the child you once forgot

You don’t even know my name

Don’t know the candles on my cake

Don’t know the dreams that kept me awake

You chose goodbye

I wore the shame

I hope regret cuts through your pride

For every year you stayed outside

You don’t even know my name