Thank You, My Father Poem by Ferdinand L Quintos

When I opened my eyes and took a look,
I saw you sitting alone in a nook,
as I stirred you quietly came near
and from my cheek wiped away a tear.

You have a fever you said with concern,
you always had that power to discern,
yes, father, I said, I have a head cold,
there was something to me again you told.

My mind rushed back through time to remember
when I to held on to none but your shoulder,
you gave me everything within your means
but vowed to ask nothing in recompense.

Now you are here knowing what I needed
and to me you once again reminded
of how in many times now past we dealt
with the same malady that I now felt.

Induce yourself to sneeze, you would say,
you will find what troubles you goes away,
I did so and what came made me ecstatic,
what you taught me still worked like magic.

So I did coax my self to sneeze thrice
and each time I loudly did I closed my eyes,
when the last of your prescription was done
I looked around but I found you have gone.

Truth dawning on me I took a candle,
thankfully set the same on the table
and as a lit it I prayed that its scent
the fumes take it to heaven where you went.

(The story happened to me in Davao City several years after my father died in 1979 in my hometown more over five hundred kilometers away.)

© FLQ February 23,20104