In honor of Father’s Day, Alamo City Moms Blog is bringing you a series of posts written by local dads about topics related to fatherhood.
“Fatherhood”
For Kierian and Luca
Being your father is a book
I am reading as I write,
Accepting or replacing
The words as I go, words
Written by my father, mentors,
Mothers who fathered me
And The Father.
It calls for my best thinking
And feeling and, yet,
I sometimes have
To repeatedly return
To work a passage until
It is good enough, I hope.
It is the most important
Book I have ever held
Because as I am fathering you,
I am also fathering myself
In ways I would have wished.
Because of this I am patient,
More often than not, when
Assembling a red wagon,
Or first swing set,
Or breakfast conversation,
Especially in those moments
When I know we are talking
More through our eyes
Than words because, you see,
The book is written
In the air between us,
In our collective memory
It will be yours
To rewrite someday.
Write it better than I did
So you can better love
Your children
Who are counting on us
To be true
To our words.
Santiago is a San Antonio native. He has been involved in many modes of creativity over the years including poetry, visual art, and photography. His professional experience includes public policy, community and economic development, and healthcare administration involving federal grants management. He is a proud father to Luca and Kierian, and husband to Heather, ACMB Community Events Specialist.