Comfort is — buying an XL
flannel jacket for the winter
even though you’re only a medium
because it reminds you of your daddy —
and on that first chilly day
cold seeps in though the gaps —
but really you don’t much mind
because in your little girl memories
he’s keeping you safe and snuggly warm.
in good times and in bad
’til death do us part
isn’t just for marriage —
but family too — lifelong vows
coursing through our blood
“He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. Dad never was a money-maker, and, as nearly as I can make out, he never wanted to be. He worked mighty hard when he worked, but his real job was living.”
—Clarence Budington Kelland, 1927
“My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’ ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.’”
—Harmon Killebrew, 1984