Torn From the Pages of My Heart

The Old Man In My Father's Funeral



An old man wore a tattered polo

In a worn out shade of murky blue

As he walked amidst a well-dressed crowd

During my father's funeral


That man, his hair all gray,

His skin all wrinkled with age;

Such a little man, yet such

A bundle of strength

Walked the winding road

To my father's resting place


Those pants that once gloried

In their blackness

Now aged in prouder gray

How many toddlers must have sat

Upon that nimble lap and got

A smile from that tired face?


I saw with my heart's eye

How he treasured those worn out clothes

The years had passed, yet not

The fondness he had

Of those tattered blue and gray clothes


The day before, when no one else came

To lend us the comfort of their arms

That old man arrived; A sack of sawdust

He carried on his back


He told us his pockets were empty,

That he had no possession to ease our hearts,

Except a sack of sawdusts

To put our pots upon


That man, with his worn out clothes

Won my high regard

For he chose to wear what money can't buy

He came and wore his heart.




30,226 Poems Read

Sponsors