Three Ways Of Looking At A Father Poem by Donal Mahoney

Dead these many years,
Dad's still there for me
every day, pointing

from a star
toward excellence,
the goal we shared.

I missed two free throws once
at the end of a high school game
and we lost by a point.

On the way home
after the game, he said,
'Why did you miss

those free throws? '
Years later in college
I came home with all A's

and one B. I showed him
my grades and he said,
over his newspaper,

'Why did you get the B? '
After graduation I was thinking
about getting married but I

wasn't certain. So I asked him
what did he think. Once again
he was there for me.

Sipping his tea, he said
'You asked the girl, right?
Follow through.'