Welcome to My life in the shadows




 
My Father was a fair man who always stood his ground. He saw the advent of electricity, the automobile, the plane, telephones, and electric lights. My father, he was from a different time and place when farms were worked with horse-powered-machines, men and boys. And even though he was a very loving man, who made every effort to make everyone feel welcome in his home, he was also quick to discipline, believing that a child was to be seen and not heard. Beleving that those who spared the rod had a child who was soon to be lost.
 
THE DISCIPLINE OF STING
 
Out in the willows
(Not the weeping kind) mind you
Or the globes,
Manicured so very nicely
In someone’s pristine yard
On the other side of the street,
But the kind that grows in the wet lands,
Down in the river bottoms
So thick one feels claustrophobic
Just walking through them;
The kind the old man used
To cut his switches from,
About the size of his thumb
To show his true love for his children.
The kind of willows
You don’t want to get lost in
And if you do, you pray to God
That you can still hear the river
Off in the murky distance
To find your bearings by,
After your eyes
Have watered over
From Fathers love.
 
Fall   1959

uTAH jAY
 


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THE DISCIPLINE OF STING