Caitlyn Bove- A Poem

Caitlyn Bove is a high school senior and poet from the San Fernando Valley in California. She has participated in writing workshops across the country including the Jonathan R. Reynolds Young Writers Workshop at Denison University. She is a member of an award winning slam poetry team in Los Angeles. 

Adopted

 

To me a dad is the man who raises you

Someone with bedtime stories for goodnights and adoring nicknames for days

A father is the man who provides the second set of chromosomes that create you

If this is true, 

I only have a father.

A close friend who I see for holidays and family tree homeworks.

Someone I call Uncle.

I want his Subaru when he buys a new one.

This isn’t me being completely self-centered

It’s me attempting to fulfill the pleading of my sister 

His other daughter

She wants me to have car very badly.

I do not know much about him

And I don’t know how much he knows about me 

So I don’t want to say anything that will offend our memories

He’s not in great health

You see, 

they keep finding cancer on his forehead

Even his “HELLO” printed band aid can’t cover the fear that stains his skin

All I know is that

chances are, 

he won’t be alive to walk me down the aisle

Or dance with me like nobody’s watching

even though a hell of a lot of people are

Plus I might not even get married until my mid-life crisis

and by then he will definitely be gone.

He’ll probably be scattered across the Andes

or just on a bookshelf in his husband’s house

The structure they’ve shared for so many years 

5 birds, three turtles, one dog 

He will be there for his son’s wedding though

Not his real son

Just his ex-wife’s new son

He’s in  his thirties now

and already balding

I’d like to think of you as more than a sperm donor.

So,

Happy late birthday Uncle Bill 

You, Daryl and Baxter make a beautiful family.