The last I heard from Daddy
He sent me the adoption registry
From his wife in Miami.
Where she went to wait for the end.
On a new development where the houses are all the same.

And they'd written me off since 2004.
Jeffrey in 2005.
With my wife in the room I told him to stop calling.
His pride wounded when I hung up on him twice.
Daddy would rather spend the last years of his life
holding a grudge against his youngest son and his wife.

Perhaps there is regret for not having left him with Paulette's
Thieving ass.
But Desmond's son would not have felt me up.
He was cool to the story when it came out
Surreptitiously.

"It's the culture of the island folk,"
Pansy would say before she stole away
From Madge's place. Her grandmother. A runaway.
Running with as much of Madge's money as she could take.
Our babysitter who baby sat in strange ways.
Without panties. "boys look under the table."

Cut off from the white side of the family
I married into.
They'd probably tell them to hide their valuables
Because he's just like his mama.