His father
Finally
Came back home
20 years later
Neatly packed
Inside a brown coffin
Like a gift that he promised to send to him
The day he left
The boy
Now a man
Opened the coffin
To wrap his father’s body
With all the pain
Of the nights
And days
He cried
Anger burning the air in his lungs
Rejection eating all the innocent bits
Of his fragile soul
Wishing he had a father
A mirror
To see his own image
As a man
He did not shed a tear
At his funeral
To him
This stranger
Died with his broken promises
20 years ago
Siphiwe Hlongwane is an avid reader and writer of poetry and short stories. His work has been published at Poetry Portion, Praxis Magazine Online and Fundza.mobi.