17)

as another poet -- who listed his kids’ ages --
said, when you become a father
they don’t give out manuals
can’t be a parent and say, that went
well, no mistakes there

there are more moments than i can count
when i hear my old man’s voice
in my own
no use getting neurotic about it
we all age into the persons we feared

we’d become
and find it’s not so bad
even the child inside the man
learns to accept this fact
the punk rocker with reading glasses

[composed while watching the documentary the other f word (2011) on father’s day]