Papadigm

It begins today,
the anniversary,
if that is the right word for it.
Today, I officially become older than my father,
twenty-five years in the making.
What did I think would happen?
A message from the hereafter or something,
congratulations,
of course not,
none of us ever believed in paradise.
But nonetheless today my face will supplant his,
my mirror to his photographs.
He will never look like this,
and from here on in
I am his senior in my reveries.
I will teach him things now,
finally my student after sixty-one years,
our roles reversed and he,
with the same inquisitive expression
that often sat upon my brow, will be my pupil.
He will ask me new questions.
Where shall I begin?

© Graham Sherwood 09/2012