Ruins

As a young man, your father
showed up anywhere
and fathers everywhere
hid their daughters
because he ruined girls
the way a glutton
ruins a public toilet.
Now your father is gone
yet he remains
since all of the men
that come your way,
ruin you,
the way a plague of rats
ruin a bag of rice.
It was your father
who ate bitter leaves
but it is you with its
biting taste on your lips.