The Unmet Man

Poem about my dad, written on what would have been his 60th Birthday.

I never did stand next to you at my adult height,
I never spoke to you man-to-man,
We never watched our favourite team together.

I was still a kid,
And you were not old.

We never did talk,
About the things that matter to me now,
I was a child, and you were my father.

I never knew your favourite movie,
And you don’t know mine.

I’ve had to look up to men I never met and never could,
but with you
always in my mind.

Now I’m 30 and you’re 60,
half your age.

15 years since you died,
half my life.
But it feels like yesterday.

And as I grow older,
I realise how young you were.

I don’t know what you’d think of me,
I hope
one day, I’ll find out.