To My Boys - Jacob and Noah

“To My Boys — Jacob and Noah”

I was given years, somewhere seventy to a hundred to see,

what really matters, what stays, what’s left of me.

I’m standing still strong, breath steady, bones intact,

so hear these words now—there’s no going back.

Jacob, my son, though blood may debate,

you were mine long before the world learned to hate.

I was the man who held you, the voice that you knew,

the only damn father who showed up for you.

If anger was born from a moment I missed,

or pain I was never told to resist,

know this truth clear, without excuse or disguise—

I never turned away, I never closed my eyes.

Noah, my boy, you stayed close through it all,

through the rises of joy and the long hard falls.

I watched you become what a man should be,

a father, a pillar, a legacy.

Three little souls call you Dad with pride,

and every time they do, my heart opens wide.

You don’t just live life—you live it right,

and you’ve been my proof on the darkest night.

I’ve loved you both when I was broken and beat,

when I limped through surgeries, pain in the street.

When betrayal cut deep and nearly took my breath,

when a woman I loved showed me the face of death.

I’ve loved you in silence, in distance, in prayer,

in nights so damn lonely the walls learned to stare.

Every evening your names rise straight from my chest,

not asking for thanks—just asking you’re blessed.

Jacob, if lies were whispered and fed,

if a mother’s anger rewrote what was said,

hear this now, from a man who won’t bend—

I never stopped loving you, not once, not then.

I wasn’t perfect, I failed, I was wrong,

but love like mine doesn’t weaken with time.

It ages like steel, like scars on the soul,

like a father who never let go of his role.

If my road ends soon or stretches out long,

this truth will outlive every right and wrong:

You are my sons, both equally mine,

written in prayer, not erased by time.

I don’t need forgiveness to speak what is true,

I don’t need permission to still love you.

I stand here a father—unbroken, sincere—

my heart wide open, my arms still here.

And if one day you wonder, when I’m not around,

where my love for you lived, where it could be found—

look up at the night, feel the quiet above,

that’s where I placed every ounce of my love.