HAPPY INTERNATIONAL BILL PAYERS DAY!!
REMINDER!
APOLOGIES TO MY FATHER
After living for almost half a century now
I want my father to kindly resurrect
I want to earnestly apologize to him
For having misunderstood him so.
I want to tell him it’s true
That a man’s worth is only after death
When alive no one gives a heck
For his sentiments, joys or fears
A man is all alone in this world.
I want to tell him I’ve confirmed
That a man is merely a bill-payer
An ATM machine for every card-holder
To withdraw without a care
About tomorrow and next year.
A man is awake when the others snore
Thinking about school fees and bills
And fearing for attacks by thieves
When the others gossip he is brooding
About the future of his children.
And what does he get in return?
Cold shoulders and cold stares
Cold meals and cold reception
Is that the smell of alcohol on your breath?
If you drank less we would be far!
And the nagging continues.
The children are brainwashed
To believe their father is a mangy dog
Who pays your school fees, she asks
Who buys your clothes, she muses
Little do they know the bedroom intricacies
Little do they know the real financier.
A man is always on the receiving end
An authoritarian is too strict to be liked
A softie is blamed for the kids’ waywardness
Why can’t he be like the other fathers?
Why doesn’t he talk too much?
Like so-and-so’s father?
And when bills and fees are finally paid
Everybody runs away to the big city
Including ‘for the best and for the worst’
To babysit the son’s newly-born daughter
Even giving birth to a man is biased!
Loneliness, hunger and diseases invade him.
It dawns on him that he’s on his own
A married bachelor of sixty years young
He reviews his life in three simple stages:
Birth, bills and burial
And when he finally rests from prostate cancer
Everybody comes home with teary eyes
We loved you but God loved you most.
Terminal benefits are finally out!
Plots are bought and houses are built
A modern mansion is built for the widow
Grade cows are bought for her sustenance
To live happily ever after!
Nobody wants a mum to die quickly!
Goodbye Mr Bill-payer till we meet.
Life is not fair to a man
After giving his all for the sake of others
He gets a shroud instead of a shoulder
Who will come to the rescue of the man?