Dad on a roof

You asked me
where’s Dad
and I answered
Dad’s on the roof
which he was
cleaning a year’s worth of leaves

but what I wanted to say is
I am a grown-up
which of course
you already assume me to be

but I wasn’t
not fully
not until it all came together
in that simple moment,
the sudden realization
that I had collected

kids
a house
a husband on a roof

I snipped the last
of my own youth
and watched myself
float away
around the bend
as the river carried me further
downstream.