Would He Even Know Me Now?

A passing doubt...

The past is full of shades and shapes

Of people, come and gone,

'Whatever happened to so and so,'

We say, when the mood is on;

But closer still, our parents live

In the warmth of our hearts and minds,

And my father often returns to me

To haunt my quiet times.

 

How do you deal with a love so deep

That it tears your life apart?

The day that he left, he took a piece

Of my ever caring heart,

He died, and so did I that day,

But I couldn't even cry,

A loss so great to a fickle fate -

I wept, though my eyes were dry.

 

Though that was twenty years ago

I remember in every way,

He'll always be just the way he was

On that final, desperate day;

But I have changed, I'm older now

And life has never been kind,

The years have indelibly traced their path

On my face, my body and mind.

 

My father knew me way back when,

A child, a teen, young man,

I hovered around the forty mark

When he left in the Lord's great plan;

But one thing worries my troubled mind

And it haunts my thoughts somehow,

If we were to pass on the street today

Would he even know me now?

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[cynthiabuhainbaello]

A nostalgic and deeply moving write that's quite a tribute to your father. I find the poem beautiful in its honesty, as you laid out your memories and feelings for a departed parent. We all wonder sometimes how we have changed, or have been changed by circumstances in life, and how others we knew in early years would view us in our present state. Thought-provoking yet a tender poem to ponder on.