THANKS FOR NOTHING, DAD!

Thanks for Nothing, Dad!

A sort of Poem

On this Father’s Day week I want to thank you for those things you passed down  through your DNA, Dad

The things to be grateful for

As I look at your picture on my wall, frozen in time, your long, slender frame I see--

To My brother you passed it, to our son, Jeff, you passed it

good gosh

what happened to me!

 As I step on the scales and look down at the numbers

I can only say—Thanks for nothing,  Dad!

Huuum, so many other things ----------------

That brain of yours, Georgia Tech educated,  engineer honed

Which awed me every night—“yeah, Dad--but how did we do the equation? get that answer, tomorrow in class I have to know?”  “Well—It just comes to me,” you’d say. “I can’t explain it to you.” And really, you couldn’t.

So Grandaughter Madeline and Davis too have mad math skills they got from you.

And me, a grown woman—I still can hardly add two plus two

So as I try to balance the ledger, in vain,  I can only say

Thanks for nothing, Dad!

You drank way too much and chain smoked too, but still had some pretty awesome healthy DNA.

Till the day you died you eyes were clear and you could hear what was said a mile away.

So as I twist in my hearing aids each morning and clean my glasses to put them on.

I look in the mirror to see if they’re straight and I can only say

Thanks for nothing, Dad!

But then there're other things I think of -- not so much DNA

Nature or nurture kind of stuff, see-- if you want them to be a certain way, live it and they will see, they say----

The time we had with you--too short
Death ripped in one night and you were gone.
In all the years you had on earth, I never heard you say an unkind word about a living soul--

 that’s just how you were, every day.

 And another thing Dad—you never ever raised your voice in anger, ever—for me the calm in the center of a storm, so kind a man,

You know—I’m working on all that, still

And someday maybe I’ll get it, I so hope that I will

So as I look in my heart, I can only say

Thanks for everything,  Dad!