Fathers

Your father and mine- 
A lifetime of memories
A lifeline that threads
A story
Through our lives;  
Fathers who set our paths and shaped them 
Selfless with love
Encouragement and wisdom,
Rebuking our misdemeanours
Favouring  honesty,
Who gave us skills, who fashioned 
Our curiosity of ancestral roots;

Sharing their love of the sea and river, 
Of rocks and moorland,
Of stars and planets
And of the Emerald Isle;

Making connections
Their memories became our memories,
Making us who we are
And who we are to be;
As strands have been freed,
Unsteady and adrift we feel-
All at sea;

There is a gap,
But not a void,
For already
A lifetime of memories 
Falls into that place
Soft, soft as snow
With stitching so fine
As if upon gossamer silk;
A lifeline that threads
Between our world and theirs, 
Tracing rainbows through the rain,
Steering our course
As they always have done.