Fatherhood Freestyle: The Weekenders

Matt Prestbury, co-founder of the Black Fathers group on Facebook and founder of the blog Focused on Fatherhood, uses poetry to express a father’s frustration…and commitment.

 

how you gonna let a man that don’t know me from Adam
tell me when I can see my children

 

then you tell me that I can’t come to your building
and knock on the door for you to let them in 

matter fact you tell me meet you at the gas station
be there at 6:30 and don’t have you waiting
if I take too long you’ll be getting impatient

and be downtown the next day telling them I’m violating
think about what you’re doing to them

when you open your door for a parade of men
one is barely out of your life before the next one comes in

and you got the nerve to tell my babies that I’m triflin
telling them that I don’t know how to treat women

and they shouldn’t be around me because I’ll corrupt them
It’s really time for the healing to begin

and cut all the hateful talk based on the pain that you’ve been feeling
if you choose to keep on acting this way

there gonna wake up and resent you one day
and understand that their father NEVER walked away

but was forced out despite his attempts to stay
and forced to respect a strangers orders

someone I never met telling me when I can see my daughters
and money doesn’t raise them It can only help support the
things that they need but I’m determined to be more than just a donor
so I send the payment as I must

and shake my head in disgust
and resent the fact that you didn’t trust
that we could work this out between us

reports cards came out and I was truly amazed
when the girls called and said that they got all A’s
and I really wanted to take them to out to Friday’s

but I couldn’t because it wasn’t one of my days
I told them, “When the weekend comes, I’ll take you to your favorite spot
I’m very proud of you two and I love you a lot

don’t ever let anyone tell you that I am not
doing the best I can with what I’ve got
although we can only spend time together on certain days

I am you father and I’m here for you always
keep striving for excellence in all ways
and I’ll keep on coming to your games, and recitals, and plays

so I’ll just keep sitting here waiting
to give the third degree to the guys that you’re dating
and keep on mailing a check although it’s frustrating

and keep on dreading Sunday evenings because it’s heart breaking”
’til we meet again