Tribute to My Father

Dad

As the oldest boy
Life started out hard
No money, no toys
Life dealt him bad cards

Big family, rented land
Too many, too poor
Grew their food by hand
Their mother the core

Meal times the toughest
Eight children, all small
Hunger the roughest
Potatoes, that’s all?

His own Dad beat him
It seems out of spite
A belt to his limbs
Best safe out of sight

They sent him away
With an uncle to work
For free meals, no pay
He learned not to shirk

Rage became power
He relished its feel
Though turning him sour
As part of the deal

Years passed and he aged
But still coped this way
Powerful, enraged
Thought he was okay

Now bent and older
His wife in the ground
Passion’s grown colder
Few friends to be found

Aware now, awakened
Just what had he lost?
Faith in rage shaken
He counted the cost

The anger he’d used
And nourished so well
Entrenched and infused
He’d made his own Hell

There isn’t a rewind
There’s no second chance
To undo the time,
Add love and romance

His future was cast
He’s lived out life’s plan
Forgive him his past
And just love the man.