Trustful in your early guidance of my shuffling steps,
I leapt the phantom chasm from childhood to schooldays,
the rule book you’d written fitfully memorised,
and prized as the just reward for my best behaviour.
You gave me a role model in what to admire
on my tireless quest to unveil the mislaid ideal,
while feeling a groped path to emotional stability,
as the pill-popping poppets miasmally faded.
You stayed in my heart (if not in continued presence)
over stressful years where my innermost personal ‘being’
its freedom found, and belatedly started to explore
the glorious vistas of existence from a map you’d charted.

It isn’t often in a life of strife
to note there’s one who never turned the knife.