Coming Out

(on anticipating a father’s response)  
 
perhaps the dark truth is  
that you didn’t really care either way  
and all my fear was meaningless because  
there was no investment from you  
 
that I was just a little kid  
you had to clothe and feed
 
and then felt obligated to
well into adulthood
(provided I made sacrifice)
as per some instinct called love
 
but which you didn’t really name
because you were just Baal’s ghost
 
a mocking image of a man