Kenji Lockett
To An Absent Father

“One day we’ll be together baby but we can’t right now,”
the card reads as if he were writing a letter to his daughter from prison.
Baby boy four years old
Baby girl two years old
each resembles both mother and father
grandfather
grandmother
aunt and uncle.
That’s what his kids know
not him in his presence
but that of his voice over the phone.
Baby girl confuses her pa pa for her father
because pa pa’s deep voice and puffy beard is comforting to her innocence.
Baby boy growing like a weed
just like his dad
tall and likes to eat
growing into a man.
Angry and hostile
temper tantrums
bad behavior
lack of stability.
He cries out against a home with mommy but no daddy in it
because he doesn’t understand.

But all daddy wants is a stable life himself.
Money to provide for his kids is his goal
mimicking the life of those he sees on t.v.
What’s up brother?
You can’t rap
you can’t slam dunk so why even bother?
Chasing an unrealistic dream
for a culture who could care less about him as a subject
but he still pushes on.
A strong Black man, maybe,
but you know what?
Baby boy and baby girl could care less
if he’s broke
children don’t need money
just their father.



A budding poet and intellectual, Kenji Nikkole Lockett has defied the myths and statistical representation of Blacks in the United States. Born and raised in the East Bay in the housing projects, Kenji's work conveys the challenges of living in society and on the streets of Oakland. On the verge of suicide, she turned her love of writing into a tool to heal herself and to beat her depression. To Kenji there is nothing more important and powerful than self-expression through the arts. She hopes to one day to be a leader and a model in the Black lesbian community and society at large.