Poem, "The Dad I Never Knew"

1. The Dad I Never Knew<br />By John R. Wible<br />To William W. (Red) Wible (1916-2011)<br />The Dad I never knew, you see,<br />He must have been a Man.<br />“To obvious,” you say? Then,<br />I’ll explain it if I can.<br />Some shades of men are lily-white,<br />While others, kudzu-strong.<br />Nine to five is good enough,<br />Yet others know that’s wrong.<br />A Man has mitts with fingernails,<br />That stain their tea-glass black.<br />Men put lotion on their hands,<br />And powder down their back.<br />The Dad I never you, oh, oh,<br />Was surely one of These,<br />Rather never one of those,<br />Who always tried to please.<br />No matter what the issue was,<br />He’d take a stand and stay,<br />There, on that spot he’d carved,<br />Until his final Day.<br />“How,” you ask, “how could I know,<br />The Dad I never knew?”<br />I’ve seen him in the face of Them,<br />The ones who loved him true.<br />Men are Loved, while men are liked,<br />Tho’ it’s not eas’ly thought;<br />It does not ‘twine around one’s brain,<br />It’s more quickly caught –<br />By seeing what their life has made,<br />The children they have sired;<br />And what a legacy is left,<br />When they are old and tired.<br />I’ve seen his passed-down progeny,<br />And watched the jobs they’ve done;<br />The hours given in bright daylight,<br />Or past the setting sun.<br />The Dad I never knew, you see,<br />I knew him after all.<br />“He lives this day, yet past his Day,”<br />You mark it on the wall.<br />The Dad I never knew, oh. oh,<br />He surely was a Man;<br />And I will be a Man some day,<br />Just like him if I can.<br />