You’re My Dad

Will you come to see me Jack
     When I’m old and very shaky?
Yes I will for you’re my dad
     And you’ve lost your last old lady
     Though you traveled very far
To the highlands and the badlands
     And ripped off the family car
Still, old dad, I won’t forsake you.

Will you come to see me Jack?
     Though I’m really not alone.
Still I’d like to see my boy
     For we’re lonesome for our own.
     Yes I will for you’re my dad
Though you dumped me and my brothers
     And you sizzled down the road
Loving other fellows’ mothers.

Will you come to see me Jack?
     Though I look like time boiled over.
Growing old is not a lark.
     Yes I will for you’re my dad
     Though we never saw a nickel
As we struggled up life’s ladder
     I will call you and together
We will cuddle up and see
     What the weather’s like in Key West
On the old-age home TV.

— Grace Paley, “Enormous Changes at the Last Minute”