PADRE

At five years old, I can swear,
I saw him flying like Superman,
bursting bad guys, scaring off the frights
from my nightmares
with his Luisa just like my mom.
At thirteen, I started to fail him,
in the midfield, I couldn't play
and this high school is serious business,
I have to swallow a thousand subjects,
he said: it's necessary, my dad.
To not be a skilled ignorant
as I always was for being an immigrant's son,
here I leave you my sweat,
may it be sap and a motor to take you
where dad never reached.
At twenty, they saw me shout:
what can this strange old man teach me
and this maze of twenty-five
I can only cross
in one leap without dad's help.
And now that several more years have passed,
more than thirty years I must confess
and I confess that it took me so many years,
so long to find out
that the reason was right here.
I want to be a hundredth part,
just a piece of what my father has been,
I want to climb to his illusion
and from there ask for forgiveness
and ask for nothing more
if he already gave me everything else.
I want to see my father's grandson
knowing more than I can teach him,
here I leave him this song
half peace, half horror
and may he sing it where dad never reached.