Tribute to Dad

How did you rise and shine so many mornings,
Wake/shake us children, keep us in the race?
Only the roaring rhythm of the city subway
Had the straight-ahead power of your worker-soldier’s pace.

We were going so fast we maybe rushed right by the goal;
Trying so hard we maybe never did see it whole;
Working so hard we missed the forest for the trees;
We downplayed “soul,” I didn’t write enough poetry.

But that was the world of work you got us used to,
Our joy, our curse, our survival to this day;
You hustled hard, did what you thought you had to,
Made a living, left whatever you could for play.

Once when I was twelve and you were forty,
A cousin was saying how all love should be free,
But you, you just kept shaking your head and asking
“What if a person were lucky enough to meet

Someone whom he wanted to love forever
And whom he wanted no one else to love?”
And though I was only twelve I had discovered
The core of your devotion, your “Jewel,” my mom.

Now I’m approaching love and writing love songs,
And Daddy is it really any mystery,
For the song of love and the song of my survival,
I’m thanking you who passed the seed to me.

Don’t want to wait ‘til you’re too old to tell you,
Don’t want to save these lines for a eulogy,
In love myself, approaching love songs,
My heart’s wide open to you, Daddy.

My heart’s wide open to you, Daddy,
My heart’s wide open to you, Daddy.