Part Two

When sickness had but caused the giant that my father was to crumble to a frail-looking figure on the bed of death, something in me refused to remember him like that, and it somehow hurled me back to how he was when we were brought up as children in the Masiya household. Most of the memories of him at optimum strength seized my pen even as I sat alone in my room closing my eyes to the reality next door and drawing from yesteryear with the ink that has captured some of the verses you now hold as part of THE RIGHT TO MOURN.

Another reason for writing THE RIGHT TO MOURN was to honour the father I’ve know all my life. In honouring him, I saw and still read of myself having rhetoric conversations with his life imparted upon me and that still resonates in my perception on life, whether it be whole or in part.

Paying homage to him has meant that I undress myself and look at him. To an extent, it meant shedding off certain parts of him while embracing others so that I can be this ultimate man he aspired to be, while being me. It has also made me marvel at sonship and desire for sons who still have their fathers to cherish their relationships with them and model out hearts that will cause an impact even in generations following.

In honouring my father, I spoke to the man that I am becoming. I am speaking to the man, male or female, that you are becoming. I now am becoming, consciously so. And so, I wrote THE RIGHT TO MOURN expressing gratitude to this man who I saw do all to be the best he could be to us his children.

…that is a man.