Kindly accept the following words as a gift on Fathers' Day - a gift for everyone, not just Dads. Feel free to share it, as you wish.
I AM PARENTACUS!
My place at table, laid with cards:
two from my sons, one from afar
posted (my wife works away..)
still, she remembered
Fathers' day.
They're all declaring "You're the best!"
My honesty - it cannot rest,
- though fragile ego grips on tight,
Integrity resolves the fight:
I know that meaning's not quite right.
Ten million other Dads are best?
So form a queue - with me the first!
We're all the "best" - that's so absurd;
find other meaning in the word.
Perhaps, within this human zoo,
I did MY best,
and so did you.
My partner works away from home;
I'm father, single-parent, Mum.
Poor substitute for most of them.
I'm all of them sometimes, and none
comes close, as I learn to perceive:
'Parentacus' stands up in me.
My turn to parent -
my own Mum,
The role's reversed - too soon for some.
I bathed my Dad, before he died:
It told him all I hid inside.
He passed the baton - can't I see?
Parentacus! Stand up in me.
I gave my time up yesterday -
to run a football tournament.
Was that to see the joy of play,
or self-inflicted punishment?
A child fell down,
I picked them up.
Tell me, who raised the winner's cup?
We all can parent - every one,
to someone else's mother, son.
All single uncles, maiden aunts:
did choice, or nature, take their chance?
The dying Christ cried: Mother! John!
Here is your mother; here's your son.
The best of truth - it sets you free:
Parentacus - stand up with me.
Parenting, is how we breed -
it takes:
- seconds to insert seed
- nine months to keep it safe inside
- a village to bring up a child.
We help to shape the world we share:
drink the same water, breathe our air.
Against the tide of rot,
You stand -
to be the very best you can.
Never alone!
Your choice to be:
Parentacus
(c) John Drought - Fathers' Day, 17-June 2018