Father…
Why is it I should wait?
Wait too long and it will be too late–
there is a world in front of me,
perhaps you’re just too old still to see
there’s nothing I can do as but a boy,
I’m nothing more than the world’s toy
it takes a man to travel
and in unfettered heights to revel;
why do you hate me so?
Why do you treat me as a babe so low?
I want to learn, I want to help
I want to be more than a fleeting yelp.
Child…
What would you call a yelp?
Why are you so eager to join the kelp?
Swim, swim away from time;
oh, what I wouldn’t give to know again the easy rhyme
you name stagnation
in your howl for the abdication
of the innocence of love and play,
oh child, no, if only you could hear me pray–
I pray for you and for your soul,
a soul from me the world so stole–
perhaps it’s curse you never could
know there’s no return to bartered childhood.