Father's Day '06

I see him
Standing, lips smacking, teeth out
In the act of standing he has forgotten
why he rose

I don't know why he got up
But I have always known
what he stood for,
In my memory, in my life

Filling the door frame
creaking leather and weapons
He lifts me past his cologne and five o'clock shadow
and I am elevated past my fear

Past, I see him
waging war across the globe
a lionized youth
putting the world to order and then

A pensive man
standing by his aging and infirmed father
as he slips off to prepare his place
and happily raises his children up

I stand
and in the act of standing forget what I stood for
my children's small hands holding me here
and the line of my fathers calling to me.