For My Father Poem by Frank Bana

My father told me
I feel safer now
when you are near
when you come around

and he said in these days
we can be together
and not really have to say
too much to each other

After 53 years
we begin to understand
there's a moment's hope
that things won't turn out
quite so very hard

(Why then has it become
more difficult to sleep
when I remember
that I am a son?)

I cannot deny
this ache in my head
the things about my wife
you long ago had said

but you stood up after all,
stood up tall and new
my hand would not let go...
see how we grew!

and I will not deny
even if I could
the beauty that you are
within your fatherhood.