Generations, Continued

So now I am a father.
The generation behind me is
fading and a newer generation
is overshadowing mine.  They,
my son and my daughter, will say
that mine is the generation  fading fast,
that my parents, my living mother
and the memory of my father, are simply
extensions of the same generation:
we are the old, they are the now;
our light fades, theirs is just starting
to shine brightly.

And now I am a father,
repeating myself it seems, falling
into old habits.  I am the one
who will soon, sooner than anyone
expects, become a memory.  I am
the one, too, who will suffer
the indignities of aging:
if not a slow death, at least
the mirror of mortality, and if not
a drawn out suffering, still
they will see me fade.  And I will be
the one who, all too soon, will meet their
mates and bless their marriages and
watch them, oh so quickly, begin
yet another generation.  I will remain
the old, but they will relinquish
their position as the new and they
will join me as a watchful generation,
slowly fading.

I won’t say I can’t wait,
because I’d rather they stay
the now generation for as
long as they can.  My daughter,
age fourteen, gets her driver’s permit
next year already, and I will come to
terms with that —but not so quickly,
no more, let her stay a little girl
who happens to know how to drive.
And my son, age eleven, is starting
to notice the girls his age, and I can
accept that too — but stay there, son,
go no farther for a while.  Be the
now generation for as long as you can,
yet be aware that infatuation will
only lead to your fading, and as for
cars, daughter, they will get you
nowhere.  Look at me, see
for yourselves.

But of course neither son nor
daughter can see me as anything
but a father.  I have always been
a part of their world but never
a part of their now.  And I can
accept this too.  Just let me remain,
as I should be when they are
eleven and fourteen, still being aware,
to some degree anyway, of their now.
And let them see me, as they should
at their ages, as something of
a constant; it is not yet time for me
to fade.