Teaching my father how to fish

By Olatunde Osinaike

Getting to know him
in the interim, and the gulf

of prepositions
describing the relative

he has been
to the two younger

than me. Around,
against, beyond, concerning,

without, notwith-
standing: all of the ways

we have known him
before. Rekindling

affiliations the same
as dreams

to the minors we were.
So I start there,

a song at midnight,
with an unsavory

pushback of prior
omissions, with leading

questions and
a thought

of gratuity
towards my mother

and brothers
who knew me

at my worst:
shedding

dandruff and
a parade of old

rinds as I digested
diligence from a dull

knife making
its own way through

a bulb of red onion.
No one ever thanked

them, my brothers
who’d like to know

what a change
of heart can do

for pressure,
chemistry of the eye

after long. My father
says he didn’t

know, but I tell him
that was his

first mistake,
starting with

his wants first
again. Needs are

the sons of wants,
so I tell him

to use me
for practice

and ask about
anything

other than
my day,

I am cool with the sun
already.

BIO:

Originally from the West Side of Chicago, Olatunde Osinaike is a Nigerian-American poet, essayist, and software developer. He is the author of Tender Headed (Akashic, 2023), selected by Camille Rankine as winner of the 2022 National Poetry Series. His honors include the Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize, honorable mention for the Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Award in Poetry, and inclusion in the 20.35 Africa and Best New Poets anthologies.