When I grow up I want to be like you

You might think I’m grown up now

I guess we’re both grown up somehow

I can’t figure out where all the time went

I can hold it in the pictures

Like you once held me

Birthday parties in the backyard

Algebra homework on the kitchen table

All our beloved pets

You were delighted by everything that captured my heart

Soccer fields, basketball courts

Lizards

Pop stars

Failures and regrets

Thanks for being there through it all

You persevered when it was so easy to quit

And I never heard you complain

You were there everyday

Thanks for showing me how to shoot the bow and arrow

And to kayak through the narrows

You told great stories

I couldn’t tell what was fiction, what was fantasy

The tales of pole vaulting, horseback riding, surfing

It was all so alluring

You still are to me

My father – close but a mystery

Thanks for being kind to my mother

And to the least of these

Your patience is remarkable

I’m so glad you and I recently got to snorkel

I snapped a few pictures

To try to hold the time again

But I know like when I was a little girl and you were a young man

It’ll run thin

I’m still listening

Though I’m grown

As you speak in your patience kindness, and diligence

Goodness sown

Your work, your love

For the weak, for the poor, for the meek

You’d never say it but you emanate the Good News

Though the world is bleak

When I grow up I want to be like you