There is a time

There is a time

When you might be needed

If only for a little while

Children say they will never leave

That you are magnificent

Wrap a Beatrix Potter book up

In paper and write happy birthday on it

It moves you so much

You keep it,

Still wrapped

As a memento of when you

Were a hero

It never lasts

You might still be loved

But being needed dies

With the passage of time

Allegiances change

Perhaps it is better to be loved

Than needed

The loss of a confidant

Can throw a different light on

Things

Not always for the better.

It is always easy

To criticise other people's choices

When you have no more to make

But which side of the bed

To sleep on

Whether to buy new pillows

Throw away old cushions

Once thought unnecessary

But now, somehow

Becoming harder to lose

Than on any given day

Perhaps it is just

More difficult to gauge

What being needed really means

When for so long

You measured your worth

In what you could do

It was easy to believe

The lie of indispensability.

Maybe for a few short years

You were Superman

But now

In the fullness of time

When everything has moved

In relation to its imprint on

Long-term memory

It is better to believe

That rather than

Fulfilling an indeterminate need

You are simply

Just wanted,

Everyday task completion

Was never superhuman

In the first place

And can be done by somebody else

But you will always be loved

In a unique way

Come what may

You will always be... Dad.