"Stealing Daddy: Love Notes" by Mark Anthony Neal

Stealing Daddy: Love Notes by Mark Anthony Neal | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
“it’s never been easy with this one--from the beginning.  
That she has always been so independent--her big sister at 5 asking what she could have for breakfast, while the barely talking, just started walking toddler goes in the fridge and takes the very yogurt that her sister was asking permission for--or that she has been so self-assured; in quiet private moments, The Woman and I refer to her as the Sophia, of Alice Walker’s imagination. 
It took me some time  to understand that what she most wanted was my attention. And what that’s really about--for a girl, who is a little shy and would like to be more self-contained than her peers and her hearty personality will ever allow--is having the permission to just climb into her head; when that fails she climbs into mine. 
We have spent a lifetime (hers) of red traffic lights talking about God, the afterlife, science, gender expectations, and every other matter that you’d rather not talk about while trying sedate on that NPR pablum.  
These days she’s taken to jacking my tee-shirts: that Negro League one, that one with the spilt photo of Travon and Emmett (recalling another traffic light salon), the Tupac one I got from the Hip-Hop Archive back in ‘03, and she made a move for the brand new ‘Miles Ahead’ joint; I can’t wait ‘till she starts stealing my books.”