I can't help thinkin' o' the lad! <br /> Here's summer bringin' trees to fruit, <br />An' every bush with roses clad, <br /> An' nature in her finest suit, <br />An' all things as they used to be <br /> In days before the war came on. <br />Yet time has changed both him an' me, <br /> An' I am here, but he is gone. <br /> <br />The orchard's as it was back then <br /> When he was just a little tyke; <br />The lake's as calm an' fair as when <br /> We used to go to fish for pike. <br />There's nothing different I can see <br /> That God has made about the place, <br />Except the change in him an' me, <br /> An' that is difficult to trace. <br /> <br />I only know one day he came <br /> An' found me in the barn alone. <br />To some he might have looked the same, <br /> But he was not the lad I'd known. <br />His soul, it seemed, had heard the call <br /> As plainly as a mortal can. <br />Before he spoke to me at all, <br /> I saw my boy become a man. <br /> <br />I can't explain just what occurred; <br /> I sat an' talked about it there; <br />The dinner-bell I never heard, <br /> Or if I did, I didn't care. <br />But suddenly it seemed to me <br /> Out of the dark there came a light, <br />An' in a new way I could see <br /> That I was wrong an' he was right. <br /> <br />I can't help thinkin' o' the lad! <br /> He's fightin' hate an' greed an' lust, <br />An' here am I, his doting dad, <br /> Believin' in a purpose just. <br />Time was I talked the joy o' play, <br /> But now life's goal is all I see; <br />The petty thoughts I've put away- <br /> My boy has made a man o' me.<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-father-of-the-man/
