*a birthday poem for my baby girl on her 10th “PURPOSE” day!*
Forget babies and ODB pacifiers –
Me and Maiyah
Go back like Nehemiah: we rebuild walls together!
And though the same walls torn down in her infancy
Are the same walls she drives me up intrinsically…
These walls are in-TEN-tionally strengthening the gilded bond I treasure.
The bond I speak of is between daughter and father.
The bond I speak of has got-TEN a lot stronger.
From top to bottom, her strong persona challenged me early on.
From her “not the Momma” drama
To her staunch and dogged dogma…
I was NOT a father until I gallantly took this girlie on!
I knew she was an immense blessing
within the first TEN seconds.
By the TEN-th minute,
we had a TEN-se kinship –
Without a sen-TEN-ce mentioned, she took my breath and words away!
For the next 10 weeks to 10 months,
What the enemy had pent up
Became something she sensed and TEN-sed from:
as I’d become drenched from the depths of worldly rage.
It’s beyond ironic that my baby delivered me.
I was cross, if I’m honest, at my jaded liberty.
Though at the Cross, the darkest onyx had weighted my chivalry down.
The dark stone that hung around the blackest part of my neck
Was the weight of the world that’s kept black men harnessed and suppressed…
While I’d become hardened and depressed – she became the last Kee to lift me out.
Twisting around and bottled within terribly,
This spirit drowns and throttles men with no therapy.
Possessing thoughtful yet hollow heresies, it TEN-ds to swallow us whole.
By the time most are perplexed and aware of it,
It’s already passed to the next parentage
As a hexed heritage begetting an inheritance beset with one unhallowed goal.
Yet and still, I broke free from following this mold
Thanks to my little girl’s hallowed role.
She hollered and rolled like Rock ‘n Roll ‘til I took a look within.
Once I saw what was haunting my TEN-ement,
I became resolved to get rid of it…
As I unlocked and launched its sentience booked in the nooks within.
Thanks to the touted clout of her age’s suffrage
I started to rout all the rage and suffering.
She aided her brother and mother in making me a better man!
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings,
The Lord’s strength ordained an utterance…
Saving the substance of a husband and father to make me a better Dad!
From TEN months to TEN years,
It’s been rough but it’s been dear.
It’s been clear: I’m meant to rear her up in the fear and admonition of the Lord!
I’ve been the father who instructs and corrects her.
I’ve been the father who loves and protects her…
It’s been my honor to cover and address her with a
status christened once she was born!
That’s why I’m her not-so-secret body guard
Who might just do you bodily harm!
I’ve been properly charged like China McClain’s pops in Black Lightning.
I’m at her side like a fire arm:
Ready to ride or die like Ruff Ryder songs…
Like her inspired Mom, I’m writing entire psalms tasked to unmask her likeness!:
From the joyful noise of TEN tickles,
To her boisterous voice as a minstrel –
She’s been instrumental in my life like Go-Go tapes and CDs!
So, from boys to menstruals,
To more boys with TEN-tacles…
I’ll deploy TEN missiles – who and whatever causes her to ache will bleed!
