Para sa Aking Ama

Perhaps we'll never understand each other.

Loving doesn't mean that we agree.

If that were so, then I would say, why bother?

But there are things I know I'll never see.

I'm sure your heart knows what I don't yet know:

The pain of loving a reluctant son;

The anger, coming fast and building slow,

Of being helpless to control someone.

You want only that I grow up right,

But you know what right is, and I still don't.

I have to learn to wield my inner light,

And if I follow yours, well, then I won't.

I'm sorry for the anger in the air;

Though we fight, my love is always there.

An excerpt.