A Conversation

On entering the afterlife, to be met by my father. (Hopefully a long way off) > Hello Dad, it has been many a year < Not for me, time has no meaning here > You're looking well, since I looked at you last < One thing you leave when you're here is the past > Good job, you won't believe how much I'm scarred, can't say the past few years have not been hard. The burdens that I was prepared to take, the sacrifices I have had to make. < Whoah! Leave all those hard-done-to's at the door they hold no currency here any more. Do you think in the long life I was denied at any point I had an easy ride? Back home from war, a country on it's knees no jobs to pick and choose, go where you please? The walks to find some work, no fares for bus trying to clothe and feed the six of us? > I shan't deny you had it really rough, but from my point of view it was quite tough, child number three within your clutch of four way down the pecking order, that's for sure. Your last son was priority number one............ < That aura of self pity suits you ill considering my boots you had to fill we cut our cloth according to our need roof overhead, and family to feed compare me not to those you've left behind, the love I gave you was a different kind. > Such love you speak of never manifest I felt alone, adrift, unlike the rest. A fishing trip together, when I was small the only day we had I can recall. < I worked, but it took my good health at length an industry that sapped my breath and strength by fifty, there was no more I could do the body of a man aged ninety-two. If like some of your friends, you'd had it all been mollycoddled , pampered, treated, spoiled by adulthood it would have been too late for you to come and step up to the plate. The inner strength you have to go so far is from your past, defining who you are. I'm proud you somehow managed to get by, now, come here, son- and let me dry your eye. For contest 'A conversation', sponsor Frank Herrera 31st August 2016