April 4 - I'm a Grandpa!

I'm a Grandpa

When I was a kid I wanted to be
   A pirate.
When I was a teen I wanted to be
   A quarterback.
When I was a young man I wanted to be
   A father (respected by my wife and kids).
When I reached middle age I wanted to be
   A success.
Now that I am old I want to be.
   A grandpa.

Silly me...

For a while there I despaired my kids
   Would never reproduce
For a while I was optimistic, thinking they
   Would slip up.
For a while I thought the family fertility
   Would overcome them.
For a while I hoped my growing collection of grandpa gear
   Would inspire them (not to let my preparations go to waste).
Now years later I've grandkids I hardly ever see in
   Grandpa mode.

Wistful me...

I gave away my canoes and boats years ago
   No fishin' buddies I thought.
I put away my banjo and harmonicas
   No little ones to teach (to make train whistle sounds)
I sold a lot of storybooks thinking
   No tousled heads I'd have to read to.
I moved away to take care of other business
   Than nurturing mini-me's.
Now I've got a few of them; scattered and far away from
   Grandpa

Foolish me....

It's hard to be so far away. We gave up way
   Too soon.
It's difficult to be grandpa by mail and there's
   Too little time on Skype
It's frustrating when you want to hug 'em and they're
   Too far away to hug,
It's hard not to pray for them these days
   Too much.
Now though, that's pretty much the only thing that I can do as
   Grandpa

Hopeful me...

But there's this, in God's New Earth I plan to build,
   A boat we all can sail away on.
And there's this, in the Earth made new, I plan to sing with them
   Songs the likes of which no one's ever heard 
And there's this, in eternity we will live and write together
   Stories of our adventures.
And there's also this, in those idyllic centuries I'll build
   A tree house - one for each of them but,
For now, even though it's hard, I plan to be the best
   Grandpa that I can be.
  
  
© 2020 by Tom King