Friday, June 15, 2012

A poem for Father's Day

Dad, My Dad

Dad, my Dad, where have you gone?
I once walked by your side.
My two small steps could never match
Your slow but gentle stride.

Dad, my Dad, where have you gone?
Your lap was once my throne;
Your hair, a crown of grizzled black,
To grey when I had grown.

Dad, you shouldn't work so hard;
You're getting much too thin.
Go out and shoot a round of golf,
Take me, for sure you'll win.

Father, dear, I'm far away,
I need a loving hand
To slip me change when I am broke
And gently reprimand.

Dad, my Dad, where have you gone?
My son walks by my side;
His two small steps will never match
Your slow but gentle stride.

I wrote this poem in the college library during the summer semester of 1971, the summer Dad's undiagnosed cancer was making his ill health apparent and my worry increase. I wrote the last verse, looking to the future when I would have children, after he died the following November. 

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