Daddy
Leo Farley 4-26-17
He sits, legs crossed neatly,
Alone.
As dusk settles over
Another July night.
A cigarette clinched tightly
Between yellow stained fingers.
More bone than skin,
A can of Schlitz
In the other.
The glow of ash at the end of his Pall Mall
Like a firefly aglow,
Then a long exhale.
Expelling smoke that lingers in the air
And dances with the soft summer wind.
Followed by a sip.
Youth long gone,
He sits, quietly, stoically.
His gentle eyes
Tell of worry and strain,
Of unspoken burdens.
Or were there other thoughts
Troubling that mind,
Covered now with thinning white hair
And only a trace of the red,
Reminder of the fire it once held?
I’m sure he was watching me
As I was watching him from afar
As the memory of Daddy
is both vivid and clear,
looking through the lens
of yesteryear.
Leo Farley Writing Blog 