Father- written by Berni Albrighton

 

Father.

You dont scare me anymore,

you’re an old man and you are dead.

Your days of bullying and terrorising are long gone.

We met again, after many years.

 I was a mature adult.

 You thought  you could snarl at me and I would jump to attention, no way.

I saw the way you looked at me, weighing up what you could get away with,

but you see, I’ve grown up, I've married, I have children of my own.

I tell them I love them.

I tell them they can achieve anything.

They love me in return.

There isn't an ounce of fear in those words.  

I had a successful career.

Not in a factory, working oily machinery like you wanted me to, 

but in the corporate world.

A world you hated because you were scared of it.

Scared that your intelligence wouldn't be enough and people would see through you. 

I drive my own car, something that you said people like us don’t do.

Well, I have had many cars in my life. 

I have friends, some of which are much smarter than I am, but that doesn't worry me.

I don't need to feel superior by surrounding myself with fools.

I thank the universe for guiding me so that I became everything you never were.

I don’t mourn you.

I pity you.