Where are you Wade,
Now when you should be here,
making old people jokes at your own expense
before we can make them for you.
You should be here,
unwrapping presents
like it was your Happy Fifth
instead of your fiftieth,
making everybody laugh.
You should be here
charming children
who will never forget you,
the biggest one of them
they ever saw,
proving growing up is optional.
You should be here
helping us through
this endless funeral,
making confetti fall out
when we drop the casket,
reminding us struggle
is the gift; the goal, just wrapping.
You should be here.
Unless you are there,
showing your mother
the moment of your birth
in a medium that wasn’t invented then
and narrating it yourself
in her voice,
making her laugh.
©2014 WILLIAM JOHN WATKINS
William John Watkins 