My Father

Looks like I forgot my Father's birthday this month. It was a busy month and I had several friends with November birthdays. So today I wrote this in honor of him.

____________________________________________

I stood before my father

as they threw soil on his casket.

I closed my eyes and silently said

goodbye to someone I didn't know,

but would have wanted to know had I

been older, braver, more outspoken.

-=-

At that moment I wished I was his son

so I could wear his hand me down ties

and shoes like my brother did so proudly,

to have hold of some part of this dead

man, here so close to me, and yet so forever

far away.

-=-

I remember the last time he hugged me

which as I remember was also the first

time. He was a stranger to me, but somehow

inside, I knew he loved me.

-=-

It seeped through his skin when he hugged

me that one time, past his High Karate cologne

and minty aftershave. At that moment I knew this man,

this soldier, my biological father, would die

for me.

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

Happy Birthday, Dad. - Sam