Eighty today - if I had to choose <br />a father again, I would choose you <br /> <br />the gifts given me cannot be measured <br />or counted easily, your hundreds of books <br />hoarded with mother’s encyclopedias, <br />works of Langenhoven, a text on learning <br />techniques found in your cupboard <br /> <br />a tape-recorder you gave us; we played <br />stories and songs and programs you taped <br />over and over so our lives were always <br />bound in the security-creating framework <br />of familiar sound <br /> <br />you adored mother’s playing piano, <br />introduced light music to leaven <br />her classical pieces, a diet of Debussy, <br />Schubert and Chopin, the records you brought, <br />Strauss and Mantovani to supplement <br />Tchaikovsky and Mozart <br /> <br />you brought us fabulous toys, a go-cart, <br />petrol-driven cabriolet, steam trains and <br />walkie-talkies, dolls with beautiful hair <br />and prams to push them in, the complete works <br />of Shakespeare, my first French dictionary <br /> <br />your unerring instinct for fun, your laughter <br />and sense of joy, jolly songs by Koos Ras and <br />Christ Blignaut, Silver de Lange and his <br />concertina – your favourite band, the movies <br />you loved, My Fair Lady and Dr Zhivago <br /> <br />your love for steam trains, for fine porcelain <br />and beautiful wood, for restoration, for antiques, <br />your delight in small children and joy in sunsets, <br />your words in unending stream, fast and furious as <br />a river in flood, your forgiveness for what I have <br />done to you, the way you kept my secrets <br /> <br />I love you father and the perfect <br />girl you chose to be my mother <br />I will always choose you <br />if given a choice <br />– for eternity<br /><br />Margaret Alice<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-father-is-eighty-today-24-may-2008/
