The Bad Fathers

Internship: The Bad Fathers

by Dr. C.P. Estés

…I can hardly write on this page the words these two fathers said…

I
The first worst thing
I ever heard a man say,
came from a father who
had raped his little six year old son.
The father said the boy had
“…asked to be raped,”
because the child “…was acting
so seductive,
running around in his underwear,
showing his legs
and everything.”
This was the worst,
the very worst.
I have never come closer
to giving a death screech
and asking for the world
to be destroyed,
and for Creator
to seriously consider
never recreating the world,
or us,
ever again.

II
The second worst thing,
equal to the first worst thing,
I ever heard a father say was,
“Yes, I hit my boy
over and over
until he was like a rat
beat to jelly.
That’s the way you do it.”
He thought if he caused pus
to leak into his boy’s veins,
it would freeze into something
called “manhood.”

III
I can hardly write
on this page the words
these two fathers said.
But, they bear writing,
so that any child
might know,
that this kind of father
is not only dead mad, but
also dead wrong,
so that children
might know that they are
never meant to be
a donor child
for either parent,
not meant
under any circumstances
to be a blood sacrifice
to, of, or for, the family;
to, of, or for, any nation;
to, of, or for, any unjust authority.

IV
To the sons and daughters of parents
devoured by such demons,
Listen to me —
a father who believes these things
is sick to the very core.
Sick beyond belief.
Sick almost beyond understanding.
What these parents say,
is not only not true,
it is not even true
in Hell.

“Internship, The Bad Fathers”, © 1990, 2010, All rights reserved. Dr. C.P. Estés, poem from La Pasionaria: Collected Poems of Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés: A Manifesto on The Creative Fire.” This particular work may be used non-commercially as long as it is kept entirely intact, not added to nor taken from, and this complete notice including usage, author’s name and copyright notice are clearly printed upon it. Other permissions ngandelman@aol.com

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