I heard mom talking on the phone.

                                    Dad won’t quit smoking

                                                            And he will be dead in two years.

I’m only seven Dad!

                                    I will fight you on this one though,

                                                                        My first windmill.

I will bury those damned cigarettes;

                                    I will hide them and hate you;

                                                                        Because Mom said that you are Crazy.

How dare you abandon me.

                                    I love your greasy hands,

                                                The smell of paint thinner;

                                                            You look like the tin man when you come home!

I am different Dad! 

                        I need you dad!

                                    I know that you have the answers but you are going to leave.

Dad, I am sixteen now and have a job and a car and a friend;

                                    A friend for which I cannot describe my feelings;

Dad, my friend went back home to Finland and I can’t stop crying!

                                    What happened Dad, what does it all mean?

But I am a teenager and cannot share my pain with you;

                                    For now you are my enemy.

I am going off to the Air Force now, and am scared;

                                    But I still cannot tell you how I feel.

I hear that you are proud of me;

                                    But I cannot ask you if you are.

Dad, I have a lover now, his name is Tommy.

                                    I love him so much and all the world is before us.

Dad, why did you leave me, why did you die:

                                    I cannot ask you, because you have left me.

Dad, Tommy left me to go to San Francisco

                                    But  I cannot tell you how I feel because you left me.

Dad, you told me not to be a drunk;

                                    But I am, because I am so alone.