bringing to bear

"are you mad at me?"

I heard him say it so clearly. It was as if i was five, threw a tantrum, and there he was to settle the score. To allow me to weep in his arms and let the anguish subside. But he is not here. Those days are no more and have not been for a long while. But my sleep had been brashly stirred, and my response was just to myself.

"of course i'm not, dad. I never really have been."