A Dad's Valediction

This is the one poem so far that I've written in a truly emotional state. Not afraid to say it, after all, isn't that what we are all about?

Today you left my doorsteps
To face the world on your own terms
Full of happiness which flowed from your innocence
Innocence you founded on pretension

You made me laugh and cry.
You took me to the edge of madness
Lost in my despair, filled with my hate
You raised me in frenzy
Only to let my pedestal decay, leaving me in abatement.
We were friends, we were foes
I made you king, I made you slave
We reached goals and built regrets.

To raise you was my Eurystheus assignment.
To mold you beyond envy
No choice but the hammer and fire
Leaving behind my dreams of bows
For it was my duty to forge
Not to preserve.
My wishes and dreams were petty
For I was to be your Smith.
Never alone in your despair
I ripped your soul just to cleanse your pain
Imprisoned and recompensed teeming
You learned to cherish and be fancied.

Now crypteia you must endure.
In mind and body you shall be defeated
Your dreams and pretension shattered
Your soul tired, in forlorn.
From the wreckage you must ascend
No piques, just primed
To be the rock you must become
To be the balefire that will guide us
Once ours fade barren…

Author's Note

OK so I was emotional here. I wrote this shortly after my son left for the Army. What can I say! I love him even though he was a royal pain in the butt!