Tag Archives: parent

An Annotated Note From My Dad

I’m sorry for what happened yesterday.

I don’t forgive you.
I’m not a big enough person to forgive people who don’t deserve it.

I was trying to carry on a conversation about something that is special to you.

I don’t believe that.
You’ve never cared about the opinions of others.

It’s probably just barely in my top 100 and only because of you.

I’d be shocked if you had 100 facets to you
You two-faced waste of life who should never have been a parent.

So, instead of jumping down my throat because I made a mistake maybe you should have been impressed that I even knew the name.

I’m not giving you credit.
Ignorance doesn’t get applause.

You said a lot of things I’ll never forget,

If I had know it was my one chance to burn this bridge
I’d have said worse so now I’m saddled with regret, your legacy.

But we are still family.

You’ve abandoned family before.
Thank you for reminding me that I have that as a choice.

And it wasn’t like you hadn’t made your feelings obvious your whole life.

Just because I’m disgusted by your opinions on things like race and sex and politics doesn’t mean I wasn’t looking past that because we were still family.
And I regret I didn’t get to tell you how relieved I am to not have to feel my skin crawl every time you said something like how a black kid is a kid but once they turned 18 they are a convict waiting to happen.

You may not like me,

I’m so relieved I’ll never have to choke down my rebuttals again
Or end up exhausted from constantly policing tone and changing the subject.

And I may not like you,

Good.
It’s freeing to know that I’ll never succeed in my filial duty.

But your mom loves us both,

As a parent should.
As you should.

And we can’t be a couple of selfish jerks,

If I don’t put myself first who else will?
My parents?

And lose sight of her.

Fair

I promise you’ll never have to talk with me again.

That’s up to me.
This is my power not your gift.

And I truly don’t want to ever have a role in your life ever again.

I’m truly glad you put this into plain writing.
It makes it much easier to make it come true.

I’ve resigned myself to do my best to avoid people.

I hope you die a small death
That leaves an impact on nobody.

And when we meet I promise to smile and be polite.

I
Can’t.