Pa's Song | Teen Ink

Pa's Song MAG

October 15, 2009
By oracle-of-nonsense PLATINUM, Winnabow, North Carolina
oracle-of-nonsense PLATINUM, Winnabow, North Carolina
37 articles 4 photos 61 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We are born with two incurable diseases -- life, from which we die; and hope, which says maybe death isn’t the end."
- Andrew Greeley


Listen to your father singing
just below the voice on the radio,
his voice a high tenor
that makes you think of the wind
when it goes around corners
or sneaks into cracks in the walls.

Listen to the memories the banjo
will bring to him,
memories of a five-string
played at coffee houses and clubs
while a pretty girl waited
to dance with him.

Wonder why,
why he ever stopped.
What could happen to make him,
when each worded remembrance is drizzled
with a nostalgic smile,
when each note makes his stiffened fingers itch.

Wonder how this grinning, bearded man
became many times a father, many times a husband,
always a musician,
but never in the band
he wanted to find here
when he was young.

Watch his capable hands knead dough
and remember when you would hold his thumb,
in the days when he still prayed with you at night.
When he looks up and hugs you,
understand that when he was 17,
this is not where he imagined he'd be at 70,
but that you are still the greatest song
he's ever played a chord in.


The author's comments:
For my dad.

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This article has 5 comments.


Aderes47 GOLD said...
on Apr. 18 2011 at 4:50 pm
Aderes47 GOLD, Cambridge, Massachusetts
11 articles 0 photos 897 comments

Favorite Quote:
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
Henry Drummond

This is a great poem! :)

on May. 27 2010 at 11:44 pm
oracle-of-nonsense PLATINUM, Winnabow, North Carolina
37 articles 4 photos 61 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We are born with two incurable diseases -- life, from which we die; and hope, which says maybe death isn’t the end."
- Andrew Greeley

I'm glad you enjoyed it. :]

on May. 27 2010 at 11:44 pm
oracle-of-nonsense PLATINUM, Winnabow, North Carolina
37 articles 4 photos 61 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We are born with two incurable diseases -- life, from which we die; and hope, which says maybe death isn’t the end."
- Andrew Greeley

Thank you :)

on May. 27 2010 at 7:55 pm
Sketched97 PLATINUM, Silver Spring, Maryland
31 articles 4 photos 167 comments
wow this is so amazing 

on May. 27 2010 at 7:01 pm
Phoenix97 PLATINUM, Minneapolis, Minnesota
29 articles 4 photos 62 comments

Favorite Quote:
See lyrics to "Let the Waters Rise" by MIKESCHAIR and "Everything" by Lifehouse

This is beautiful! I think this poem just became one of my favorites on this website. Excellent work :)