My Father and Me

"Tug on my beard,” said that man in the red,
“I promise it doesn’t hurt!”
So I climbed on his lap and did just what he said,
But oddly he gasped in alert.
-
You were wrong that Christmas, I’m sorry to say,
And maybe I just tugged too hard,
But whatever you said wouldn’t hurt on that day,
Has forever my childhood scarred.
-
No breakfast today,
Only memories.