To all my friends who are daddys.
Children need a Daddy
For many, many things:
Like holding them high off the ground
Where the sunlight sings!
Like being the deep music
That tells them all is right
When they awaken frantic with
The terrors of the night.
Like being the great mountain
That rises in their hearts
And shows them how they might get home
When all else falls apart.
Like giving them the love
That is their sea and air,
So diving deep or soaring high
They'll always find him there.
For Stepdads:
Stepfathers are no less than those of blood:
The spirit is more comely than the flesh.
Equally, two mysteries might mesh,
Paired by nature or by neighborhood.
Fathers are defined by how they love,
And not by how they multiply or breed.
Though you did not supply the primal seed,
How you've loved me does your kinship prove.
Each child must turn when life's too hard to bear,
Regarding someone's arms or empty air.
So do I turn, and always you are there.
