One More Song

I thought it only fair that Luvly Dotter have a poem from Daddy too. 

“Daddy, won’t you sing me just only one more song?”

She looked up and smiled from not quite asleep.

And so I sang to her “Amazing Grace,”

And hoped she’d fall into an easy night’s sleep.

But I knew it wasn’t likely that two songs would do.

Her weeping and yelling at bedtime were long

Every night and had been since the day she came home

So I sang what I knew, but kept them all slow.

She dreaded her bedtime, but it never was fear.

She wanted to stay up with us and never to go

Upstairs to her bedroom where she’d be alone.

So each night I’d croon, and I’d sing close and low

Now I had the voice of a frog with throat ruined

A baritone raddled by whisky and smoke

That cracked on the rocks of the songs that I sang

And in the surf of that “music” it rumbled and broke.

“Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” I’d soulfully plead

And “Summertime” would follow in painful discord.

As Elvis would trail in behind “Four Walls” by Reeves

And “Amazing Grace” was a staple, and then I’d sing more

But then came that night that I hoped and longed for

When she looked up and asked what I thought never to hear

“Daddy, won’t you sing me just only one more song?

“I’ll never ask again.”

And she didn’t.

I think she’d finally realized how bad I really was.

© 2009 - All Rights Reserved R C Larlham