Dear Dad,
  I’d like to thank you. Thank you for aiding in my birth. I don’t have into too much detail but you must be one hell of gardener. You planted the seed inside my mother and it grew. It grew into what is now me. Dad thank you, thank you for being there when I need you, I’m lucky because black fathers aren’t known for their star stellar attendance. Thank you for being an imperfect, perfect father. You have been the foundation for the kind of person I’m today. If you knock down the pillars of my ribs and destroy the corridors that are my veins at the base they will find you, Dad I love the way you joke. Your jokes are absolutely terrible but you tell them like your the best comedian in the world, I say this because you don’t care about what other people think about you. You’re the kind of person that would wear socks and sandals at a black tie event and I love that. You won’t let the shackles of society pin you where you stand. You’re a man who is so firmly planted in what you believe that some people might mistake you for a oak tree. You taught me that the smallest seed can grow into a forest canopy. You’ve told me I could be the spark to start the fire of revolution. You told me to be a miniature sun, shining so brightly so that I can share my sunshine and still have extra for those you made need it. Thank you for showing me how to be a real man, because what the world tells us ain’t it. Thank you for carrying me on your shoulders so that I could see the world and all its’ beauty. Thank you for being my best friend, my shoulder to lean on when my legs get too tired. I love the way you handle business. You never circle your problems the way sharks circle fish. You strike like a snake and latch on like brand new Velcro does cheap carpet. Thank you for being imperfect and reminding me we all have our own problems. Our own chips in the woodwork. But above all thank you for being you. When your ascends to the heavens, I will mourn your loss like a rainforest mourns the loss of its trees. But until that fateful appointment with mistress death, I love you Dad
      From the bottom of heart,
                                                                                                       Mikey