You were two years old when you grinned your
way into my life,
the speech of your youth colliding in my ears like
a train wreck-
each jagged sentence required a translation,
your every thought and movement and action
foreign to me and my inexperience-
you’d laugh when I pushed you on the swing,
high into the blue,
the trailing sounds of “whee…” soaring as high
as your dangling feet-
you smiled when I’d make faces at you,
giggled hysterically when I’d tickle you,
and would cry uncontrollably when I carried you
back to bed each night, sleepy eyed and clawing for your
mother’s touch-
“Can I call you Dad?”, you questioned one random day,
one who’d never met or forged a bond with his own,
“Of course”—
and that is what I became, from that day forward,
your sword and shield,
your trailblazer,
your warm embrace,
your bandage for each nick and scrape…
the origin that you never knew,
the rock that you can forever claim as your own-
I am proud of what you’ve become,
and hopeful of what will be-
proud to have provided water for such a
wonderful seed,
one that will grow to reflect the nourishing sunlight
of his environment and the values of the
care received-
where you are, I will always be,
no matter where the tides nudge us-
my rope will always be tethered to you,
my sights ever set on your journeys,
my beaming smile adding light to
your path*