My Father's Lessons

Back in my youth was said that man should be tough is steel

They shouldn't never cry, they should hide the pain they feel

From the time I learned to speak I was told to be a man

It's just a scratch so buck up and face it like you can

Play competing sports or they'll think that you're a sissy

Tackle that guy as if to kill or else there's something fishy

Boasts of the girls you've laid with make each a trophy proud

Forget their reputations you'll be elite in the men's crowd

Worship the Gods of warfare learn to fight with gun and knife

Stand tall and face the enemy to protect your kids and wife

These were the lessons taught so well upon my Father's knee

I thought I'd learned and mastered them but I guess I didn't see…

The changing attitudes of time that sixties gave birth to

That peace and love could be expressed by men like me and you

That I could cry and unashamed at my daughters birth

That I could share with others when inside I ached and hurt

That women weren't the weaker sex that equality could work

That I could read whatever I chose and that poetry wasn't just a quirk

That I could still hunt and fish but I could do the housework too

Now as my youthful years depart me I see the brainwashing dissolve

The lessons of my father weren't sound advice at all.