Pa: a father’s day poem

In honor of Father’s Day in her country, Honduran writer and editor Marian Hawit Rosmo shares a poem about an evolving father-daughter relationship through the years. She honors the mundane, everyday things that make up a relationship with a parent.

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A morning bike ride. Source: Marian Hawit Rosmo, 2023.

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Pa

I am zero

You videotape every moment

My birth scene included

I am four

We’re both early risers

I take after you

We feed rice to the birds

Vamos a darle arroz a los pajaritos

A Sunday tradition for many years

I am seven

You show me old music

Esta es buena gordis

AC/DC and Rod Stewart and Emmanuel

I can’t say I understand the lyrics

Though I sing anyways

I am eleven

We’re having crepes at Saúl

You break it to me

That Santa doesn’t exist

I’m in shock, there’s no way

My best performance yet

You take me to the toy store and say

Anything you want my love

I feel half bad

Because I already knew

But I think

Yay 

Toys

I am fourteen

We are very different

Yet the same in many ways

You say I don’t listen when you life-lecture

I often stare into space 

But I do listen

To most of it anyways

I am sixteen

Prom night

My date picks me up

You shake his hand, pórtense bien 

My face goes red in my orange gown

I am nineteen

A college choice crisis

Dad, I chose wrong—I’m not happy

You say it’s okay honey

I trust you’ll make a good choice

I am twenty 

Delighted by the stories of your youth

And eager to find old photographs

Pa esta foto donde fue?

I’m jealous you grew up in the 70s

But you already know that

I am twenty one

We see old Pacino movies

We recite the lines

I’ve been around, you know?

I always tell the truth, even when I lie. 

We know them by heart

I am twenty two

I see you and think

Grey starts to look very good on you

You say let’s take a walk, it’s nice outside

You tell me you’ll always be there for me

And that you wish I could’ve stayed two forever

I think to myself

I wish you could last me forever. 

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About the Author. Marian Hawit Rosmo (@emehache__) is a Honduran writer, editor, and columnist at Project Synergy.