regina_jamison
Daddy’s Love
by Regina Jamison

He called me, Spriggs
my father did
or
Twiggy, String bean
and, yes, I was thin,
but I was no beauty
despite the beauty mark on my face
and, yet, I had walked down that runway
smiling
knowing that I was a throw away
unwanted
abandoned,
moved from here
to there to there to there
all before the age of two,
shuffled around like a joker
in a new deck of cards then
discarded
or just left in the box
forgotten,
Daddy saved me
wiped me down with Tito Puente tunes
and dressed me up new,
and, no, we didn’t share the same seed
we were joined in spirit
like family,
I was no beauty
but I felt regal inside
powerful
Daddy’s music moved me
still moves me
as I strut down that runway of life
head held high
the music surrounds me
and I know I was loved.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: In this poem I wanted to touch on being adopted and how that can feel. I also wanted to honor my father who was a musician. I wanted to talk about how he created a love of music in my life and how I loved him and how his love affected me.

PHOTO:  The author in 1974 at Union Congregational Church, Harlem (138th Street, New York City).

JAMISON1 ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Regina Jamison is a writer, educator, mother, and dreamer who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry has appeared in Promethean eZine and Off the Rocks: An Anthology of GLBT Writing Vols. 14 & 15. Her erotic short stories have appeared in Girls Who Bite: Vampire Lesbian Anthology and Purple Panties: Anthology of Black Lesbian Erotica. She was a recent participant at the Lambda Emerging Writer’s Retreat in California. She is currently editing her novel, Choosing Grace, while working on other works of fiction.